Mobile payment platforms continue to come in all shapes and
sizes.
A few weeks back, I spent some time with Bill Clark, CEO of Spindle, and his team discussing some of the varying approaches to mobile payments.
The idea of Spindle is to launch
its mobile payment platform city by city, and market it essentially block by block.
Spindle aggregates different businesses on its technology, kind of like how Shopkick is a platform or
digital mall for major retailers.
From a consumer’s viewpoint, the Spindle app (MeNetwork) shows participating merchants based on location. Clark says one of growth drivers is for
consumers to tell a retailer that other retailers in the area are using the app, suggesting that they should as well.
From the merchant’s viewpoint, the Spindle platform provides more
than just mobile payments, by allowing retailers to interactively offer deals and loyalty programs to nearby consumers.
Clark says the company already has merchants using it in 85 cities,
including New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver and Salt Lake City.
The company just got a boost to its city-by-by-city approach by inking a deal with Multi-max, the manufacturer of vending
machines, which is going to include the Spindle payment technology in its K-Cup vending machines.
Included as part of the deal is low cost payment processing services from Cardis USA. As part
of the deal, Spindle can distribute the K-Cup systems to businesses and coffee service suppliers throughout the U.S.
This is yet another approach to mobile payments, targeting smaller
businesses on a local level. And rather than providing only mobile payment capabilities, Spindle hopes the added loyalty and customer targeting features will attract more merchants.
In this
approach, the face of the brand is Spindle, or more accurately, the MeNetwork app.
A different approach is white labeling such technologies, as companies like Roam and Paydiant are doing
behind the scenes for businesses such as Subway.
In those cases, the consumer only sees the brand while the payment and various processing technologies are quietly handled by others.
Both approaches continue to proliferate in the market as more and more merchants warm to mobile wallets in all of its shapes and forms.
For mobile consumers, payments by cash, check and
credit card await to be beat.