Commentary
Oh, You Need a Smartphone for That, and That and ...
- by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, March 5, 2014
Every day it becomes clearer that the smartphone is becoming the hub of
commerce.
When American Express recently unveiled its new EveryDay credit card targeted at moms on the move, it touted the idea of earning points each time the card is used.
The new credit card is integrated with the AmEx smartphone app so that consumers can use their phones to monitor the status of their points.
AmEx already had neatly integrated deals within its app some time ago so that when a person checks in and makes a purchase at a designated retailer, a credit is automatically added to the consumer’s account.
Hassle free with no retailer training needed. In both cases, smartphone required.
When I hit my daily goal of miles walked or stairs climbed, my Fitbit Force gently vibrates to let me know. But when I want to see greater details of my daily or weekly activity, you guessed it, back to the smartphone for the Fitbit tracking app.
When I use my Loop FOB mobile payment device, I first plug it into my phone to select my default credit card of the day. It then acts totally independently, just by placing the device near the cash register and pushing the button on the side each time I want to pay.
Add a card? Back to the smartphone.
For my son’s Samsung watch to be fully functional? Smartphone required.
At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, MasterCard introduced an opt-in service for credit card transactions to be enabled for traveling consumers when they’re in a specific geolocation abroad. How to know? The proximity of the smartphone.
In these and countless other examples the smartphone is always part of the action.
Maybe at the beginning, middle, end or continuous steps along the way, but it is always present and involved.
As any merchant taking a credit card payment knows, a card not present transaction involves a transaction where the cardholder is not physically present with the card when the payment is being made.
Payments, commerce and transactions of the future are more likely, in one way or another, to have a smartphone present.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the AI & IoT Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily Connected Thinking column. He is a NY Times Business bestselling author and his latest book is “Digital Transformation 3.0” (The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of The Internet of Things.) He is CEO of Net Future Institute and a frequent keynote speaker internationally. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck@MediaPost.com.
"the smartphone is becoming [ONE] hub of commerce". I've still not seen anyone using a mobile to shop in Waitrose. But when people stop shopping, relax with a free coffee, and check out news and social sites, that's a whole different story. More relevantly, Triggered Messaging is a fully digital company, selling SaaS products and with a paperless office. Yet we're hiring real, old-style, talented salespeople as quickly as we can. And they use their phones constantly to talk, or go to visit potential customers in their real bricks-and-mortar offices. What we are not doing is using a smart phone app for B2B selling.