PayPal + Discover = Dynamic Duo that could also be THE Disruptive Duo!

By Randy Smith,

Mobile Wallet Media

October 5, 2012

I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg here. Discover was once the 'New kid on the block,' as was PayPal. Now both are firmly established as the number 4 and 5 players in payments. These two companies have incredibly complimentary strengths. Discover has much room to grow and PayPal has always been the innovator and wants to expand it's presence from the online to the physical world. Their current partnership is one that is mutually beneficial. PayPal rides the rails of Discover's acceptance in the real-world stores and Discover taps into PayPal's Digital Wallet, alternative payment methods and their as 110-million+ regular users and 9-million+ merchants.

IF they can figure out how to BEST LEVERAGE each other's strengths, they could both DOUBLE their market share in as fast as 2 YEARS! Yes, I'm saying as they do on infomercials, "But wait there's more!"

Continue to read entire story.

The Cause Commerce Mobile Revolution Has Begun! Yet Another Mega Trend!

By Randy Smith, Mobile Wallet Media
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Week 6 of 7-Week Series

Sharing is Caring!

It has been said that "People don't care what you know unless they know how much you care." Today, this is perhaps more true than ever, in life, as well as in retail and business in general.

Cause marketing in retail has been around for sometime, but a new revolutionary model is soon to alter ALL retail commerce. Last week we saw LevelUp introduce a preview of 'Causes Engaged to Mobile Commerce.' This engagement will last 6-12 months and then the marriage will commence and cement the relationship between Causes and Commerce. Causes will be bound to Commerce for GOOD!

In the near future, it will be required that retailers show they care by donating a percent of every transaction to charity. LevelUp's sneak preview is a window to the future.


For those already participating in supporting local and worldwide causes, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but hang with me and perhaps you may add to your vision and expand your commitment to community and causes and thus be rewarded with even more abundant sales.

LevelUp announced last week they will be offering consumers the option to donate a portion of the merchant funded reward to charity. Tying causes to commerce has long proven to be a very effective way to enhance Word of Mouth marketing and increase customer loyalty.

Macy's has long been a champion of Cause Commerce through it's 'Shop for a Cause' sales and fundraising events. These events work as follows:

1) The shopper buys a $5 'Savings Pass' from a partner charity.
2) Shopper uses single-day Savings Pass to save 10-25% off merchandise at Macy's.
3) Win-Win-Win > Shoppers save, merchants sell and charities receive donations.

This is the future formula for success in retail. Like Starbucks Card Mobile to Pay With Square, so is 'Macy's Shop for a Cause' to is LevelUp's Cause Commerce offering to the future of mobile commerce.

Another winning example and leader in GIVING BACK is Target. They have a wide array of giving programs to support education, social services, crisis relief, our veterans and more. A recent article by MediaPost.com states "Target says its "Give With Target" generated the highest level of engagement of any social media campaign in the retailer’s history, and as a result finished two weeks ahead of schedule. The school fundraising initiative generated more than 3 million votes through its Facebook app in less than four weeks, reaching its goal of $2.5 million in donations."

Since 1999, Escrip has partnered with grocery stores and local retailers to raise funds for school programs. This program works by users simply registering their credit or debit cards with Escrip, and selecting a school program to support.

The topic of this week of 'Cause Commerce' is something my heart has long been very near and dear to. You can even say a big part of the reason I decided 20+ years ago to go into business was for the very purpose of making a ton of money, to in turn give back to help the hurting, homeless and hungry. Since then I have realized that giving is a matter of the heart and not the size of one's wallet. Thus, one can start giving no matter their level of wealth. However, those with larger wallets or specifically those that control the flow of commerce, have the opportunity to not only bless the bottom line of their company or store, but also make a difference in this world.

It still is, and has long been, my hope to build out a model of Cause Commerce that I believe will not only surpass all others, but may also work well enough to end poverty worldwide, or at least make a huge dent in it. I'm not joking here (see how this is possible below), but I also realize that if the hearts of those that can make big change happen, do not change, then this is not a true possibility. 

How much funds would be generated if an average of just 2% of 50% of US retail transactions were donated to support local and worldwide causes?

> 4.2 Trillion/Yr Avg. in US Retail sales X 50% X 2% = 42 Billion/Yr*
*YCHARTS.COM 

After a long career of working towards building out a 'Universal Gift and Rewards Card Network", which began in 1996, I'm excited now, more than ever, about the prospects for Cause Commerce. I added Cause Commerce to my load of research back in the late 90's. Once introduced to the transactional equation, I've always envisioned that Cause Commerce was an absolutely necessary ingredient.

I am going to say something again here that I said just last week about Mobile Daily Deals. Cause Commerce, set up in exactly the way it should, and will eventually be delivered, will alter ALL retail commerce as we know it today. It will be yet another Mega Tend! That's right, here's one more plate to spin and get just right, or you risk losing loyal customers. On the other hand if you get it just right, you will enhance loyalty and your cause program will spread like wildfire. New customers will be delivered and attached to your brand with an emotional bond that can be stronger than a rewards based program and has been proven that it will work to compliment it. There is much more to say here, but I will save most of it for my upcoming article in November: Greed is NOT GOOD! Cause Commerce IS!

Of course, I could share the complete concept and vision here openly and unselfishly, but unfortunately I will need to allow you to do the math as to why I cannot do so at this time. Of course this could all change if your company is one of the large tech or payment companies I've spoken of here before. It's up to you to BE THE CHANGE THE WORLD NEEDS AND WANTS TO SEE HAPPEN.

Retailers and mobile wallet providers that embrace Cause Commerce, not only will see their customers be more loyal, but more importantly, water wells will be dug, the hungry will be fed, clothed, sheltered, treated for disease, educated, trained with job skills and have hope. You know, all the things we all take for granted and even feel we are entitled to.

If you do fully embrace Cause Commerce your shareholders will be very happy, as your revenues and profits will very likely surpass expectations quarter after quarter. However, if you don't completely embrace this model I'm speaking of, it will cost you market share, as consumers will question if you really care about sharing your abundance with others.

All things being, equal in a marketplace where the new standard requires sharing of abundance, makes not doing so a losing proposition as customers will take their business where Cause Commerce is embraced. A retailer or mobile wallet not fully engaging this model will surely pay the price of sales lost to their direct competitors.

This concept may also soon be challenging Wall St. PROFITS, as the chief and main concern of publicly traded companies. When the mountain is crested in this movement, profit expectations met without sharing with Causes and more abundant sharing with employees, will result in decreased store sales. This of course extends to local and regional retailers as well. This is a byproduct of Social Media embracing commerce to form Social Commerce. I know this is an idealistic perspective of the things, but I believe this is the final destination of Causes and Commerce; that is if greed is removed and called to accountability. Social networks provide the forum and foundation for transparency that is long overdue.

Thus the foundation is laid and a vision of sharing, over greed, is given, and the future is up to you. The magic of it all is that I believe it may be tough to give too much, as if you do, you may find the perfect 5.0 'Magnetic Viral Social Storm' will hit your stores.

I understand what I write here is not-standard protocol, nor politically correct (right now) and that most of what I envision may not come to be.  Will your company or store be recognized as a leader in Cause Commerce? Will it be the one to spark the 'Mobile Cause Commerce Revolution?'


About Mobile Wallet Media
Mobile Wallet Media is a news media, analyst, marketing and consulting firm focused on the future of mobile: payments, marketing, loyalty commerce, security, prepaid, virtual currency, daily deals and the convergence of them all with social and local. The Chief Editor, Randy Smith, was the primary founder, inventor and former CEO of MobilePayUSA, a TechCrunch Disrupt Award Winner.

A Square Peg in a Round Hole! Is Pay With Square Scalable?

By Randy Smith,
Mobile Wallet Media
Friday, August 24th, 2012


I love the Starbucks Card Mobile App. It is fast, simple, convenient, fun and rewarding. However, 'Pay with Square' may have a tough time scaling as fast as other Mobile Wallets, like Google, MCX and ISIS, if they fail to simplify integration at POS.

The Pay with Square Video showcases a long overdue and brilliant customer service feature, making it much easier for hospitality employees to provide 5-Star service. I spent several years in the 80's and 90's working in guest services for luxury hotels and in the restaurant industry. Therefore, I understand very much about high-end customer service in the hospitality industry. Pay with Square is great, but it may prove difficult to get their software installed quickly unto POS systems.

Pay With Square will require custom software to be loaded onto 'Locked-Down POS Terminals' and PC's or tablets, which may or may not be unlocked. Locked means the system is 'locked-down' and access to load new software is often controlled by POS Dealers, POS Network Security Firms or POS Providers themselves. Unlocked systems are open and able to download new software without working with the dealer or POS provider. Either way, the fixed systems do not like new software on their platform, much like our bodies do not like viruses or cancer.

Systems are locked down to prevent hackers or viruses from infiltrating the POS software, stealing data and corrupting the system. A 'Secure Network' is set up by merchants to protect the communications between mobile POS and fixed POS systems, as well as the back office, central network or payment processor.

Most 'Fully Integrated Systems' are locked down and many ‘Stand Alone’ PC's are also locked down. POS tablets are less likely to be locked down, unless they are issued by a POS Dealer or POS security firm to better secure the devices.

So Starbucks, Square and all merchants running their stores on Locked-Down, Fully Integrated Systems, will have potentially huge integration challenges or equipment costs to add Pay with Square. For a merchants to accept Pay with Square the merchant has the choice of using Square Register via an ipad or integrate with the merchant's current POS system.

If a merchant wants install Pay with Square on their Locked-Down, Fully-Integrated System, they will have to coordinate the unlocking of the system. Now this would get you Pay with Square, but this would be a stand alone system. Yes, this can be done, but this does not make sense as the customer or the cashier would have need to manually enter the amount due. This leaves too room for mistakes by cashier or customer and a process of closing out the transactions with their current POS system would need to be established as well. This makes no sense to do this unless they were just showcasing a proof of concept. Since Square needs a highly scalable system, this is not the solution.

However, it might make more sense if Square separates out the 'ID recogniztion' from the actual payment authorization. Or if they could authorize transactions separately from the existing POS and then merge the transaction data back in real-time ito balance and reconcile the cash register ledger.

The most likely solution for Square is to integrate fully with POS systems, like TabbedOut, Paydiant or MocaPay have already done. They would start with the system(s) Starbucks is using and try and integrate with the top 10 systems by early next year. This too, is not a straight forward process, as connecting to each POS system is a very different process.  There is another, more scalable way to do this, but I'm not at liberty to discuss publicly, as it could potentially reveal MobilePayUSA trade secrets.

Other than integrating to dozens of POS Systems, I don't see how Square will scale quickly with installing Pay with Square. This could be a very viable route if they have enough people assigned to integration. Within 3-months they could accomplish integrations, then run 3-months private pilots and be ready by Q2 of 2013 for launch of Public Beta. Many merchants have older POS systems, which they very likely would be required to replace or upgrade if they wanted to accept Pay With Square or several other mobile payments solutions. Maybe I'm wrong about all of this and Square has some unique integration method up their sleeve? But it does appear Square will still have to work within the limits of known integration methodology.

So one may ask, "Will this not lead to merchants switching over to Square Register and tablets?" Yes and no. This is a function of size and complexity of their store ordering system and size of their chain.

The larger the retail chain, the less likely they will want to swap out their current system to Square Register. It will be really hard to convince major retailers to change out their entire systems just to accept Pay with Square! We've already seen that most major merchants dragged their feet to pay for terminals with NFC. POS registers cost up to $3500 each, the POS software they run is most likely already works great and is secure.

Retailers would only want to adopt Square if they had simple ordering needs at POS, like a coffee or sandwich shop, and they were unhappy enough with their current system. It makes complete sense for new merchants with simple software needs, as the cost to get up and running with ipads and Square Register is as much as $3,000 less per register. By the way I do think Square Register has a huge potential merchant base, merchant's with fairly simple software needs, but it will have a tough time convincing 'Top Tier Retailers' to rely on Square as the platform to run their stores.

Unless a merchant is committed to being an innovator, like Starbucks, Square will truly a 'Square Peg in a Round Hole' and is not likely as scalable as NFC or QR code generation and scan like Starbucks Card Mobile. If Square sticks to Starbucks Card Mobile model and ditches or keeps their very cool, customer service tool separate from payment, they may scale at a pace equal to many current competitors.




About Mobile Wallet Media
Mobile Wallet Media is a news media, analyst, marketing and consulting firm focused on the future of mobile: payments, marketing, loyalty commerce, security, prepaid, virtual currency, daily deals and the convergence of them all with social and local. The Chief Editor, Randy Smith, was the primary founder, inventor and former CEO of MobilePayUSA, a TechCrunch Disrupt Award Winner.

The 7 S's Required for Success in Mobile Payments - Week 4 - Social

By Randy Smith, Mobile Wallet Media
Monday, August 20th, 2012

Week 4 of 7-Week Series

The media focus seems to have been mostly on enabling technology, security and savings, but retailers need a 'Clear-Cut Vision' on how Mobile Wallets will drive more traffic to their stores.

Social will be a key driver of traffic.

Social networks provide the reach retailers are looking for, and one of them is a Droid (please tell me you got that joke referencing Star Wars - Episode 1 + Google's phone). Yes, I know if I have to explain it, it only makes it worse. Welcome to my world of humor. My friends still love me, despite this.


Social has no borders or boundaries and all channels connect to it and serve it. Social networks provide, other media channels, the ability to interact with their customers. Social also has unparalleled depth of data on it's users. Of course each channel each has it's own unique data analytics.

TV, radio and even websites can gather information about their customers to better know and serve them, but this data is limited. Social data is 'Organic Data.' Facebook 'Likes' pinpoint what each 'Social Surfer' is interested in. Try that with any other marketing channel. You want to communicate and allow for 2-way engagement with your ALL of your customers at once. Just post a poll, pic, video, promotion or contest on your Facebook page. Now, I don't want to leave out 'Social's Super Side-Kick' Twitter. One without the other is definitely less engaging in reaching your total audience. Nor should one ignore any of the other prominent Social Networks such as Youtube, FourSquare, Pinterest and Yelp. 

Other media channels freely and without choice promote social networks. Why? Because in the end the 'Customer is King.' If any advertising channel wants to run on all cylinders, it has no choice but to engage social with all it's heart and might. Marketers must do it with passion and purpose or quickly be exposed or ignored as not being 'with it,' or worse becoming irrelevant.

Last week I shared that a 'Heat Seeking Missile' is required to hit our target. To make this missile fly it requires social and the right kind of social. If you ever have seen the movie October Sky, you would know that launching a rocket requires a perfect mixture of fuel. This fuel must burn smoothly and not be full of 'Hot Air Pockets' or the rocket will explode in flight. So am I saying you must be a rocket scientist to carry out social? Yes, but it will require those proficient at Social Media and communication in order to conduct reliable, safe and successful social engineering.

Placing a 'Social Badge' on ones website or ad does not make one Social. Brands must be social, like nice and extroverted people. Customers may come for your product, but will return if a relationship is built. Social Media is about relationship building and adding value to your great product or service.

In a world where customers have a multitude of choices of where they may buy a product or service, they will not as often be so stingy on price or buying elsewhere if they enjoy their shopping experience. This is a key part of brand building and being profitable and via Social, you have the opportunity to take your brand and the relationship to a deeper level. You may share about what, as a brand, you care about besides your product and services; be it saving the planet, feeding starving children or funding college scholarships. But be careful to be very proactive and collaborative with customers and non-profits to achieve the right results. The last thing you want to do is have a 'Cause Marketing' program lacking in real sincerity and purpose. People will see right through this.


In order to accomplish and carry out a successful Social Media campaign companies must hire social, friendly, fun, funny, rational, realistic, intelligent, talented, mature and very creative people that understand their product and their customer. These representatives must also care about what your customers care about and they must care about the causes you partner with. There is no going backwards here! Just like there is no reverse gear in technology, such is the case with social.

Social is most assuredly moving and trending with mobile technology. Mobile of course is changing everything as well (By the way, very soon we will examine in depth how these trends parallel).  Merchants and advertisers must meet their customers where they are at and this is where social and mobile meet. If a marketing channel fails to do this, it would have been like the auto industry saying no to fuel injection or Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Social, along with mobile, are media channels that are in hyper drive and will drive growth wherever it is properly plugged into.

Speaking of 'Hyper Drives,' let's tie in social with the Mobile Wallet. Social is also one of the core suppliers of 'the gasoline' that will enable Marty and Doc's Delorean to reach 88 miles per hour. If you remember from week one, the 'Flux Capacitor' for the Mobile Wallet is the connection between mobile to POS and is what makes mobile payments possible. So if Social in the gasoline, what is the uranium to power the Flux Capacitor?

Retailers, of course, are the 'Uranium.' Without retailers participating, the mobile wallet will be stuck in neutral and really serve no purpose. But thanks to Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, upcoming ISIS pilots and the 'new' Google Wallet, the prospects are looking good for the supply of uranium.


Social is the 'Gasoline' to drive forward mobile payments!
Retailers are the 'Uranium' that power the 'Flux Capacitor.'
Mobile Wallets provide the Flux Capacitor > POS Technology.

So, let's venture back into the 'Data Goldmine,' that the Mobile Wallet will soon be the 'Mother Load' of them all. We know that social without retail, without mobile, is a Lose-Lose-Lose proposition. And now with the addition of the mobile wallet, the data loop may be made complete, well sort of.

Up until the mobile wallet, the transaction data of customers, for all their purchases at various stores, was exclusive to networks and banks. Each retailer has exclusive SKU data and thus purchase history data, but not necessarily, if rarely ever, tied to card data. With the mobile wallet, the transaction data for all purchases is not limited to just one card brand, but will be expanded to include all payment methods; cards, ACH, gift, daily deal vouchers and virtual currency. Mobile Wallets enable customer tracking without loyalty cards. With Mobile Wallets, retailers can now track customer purchases and thus deliver personalized offers.

Also, as the wallet is paired with shopping carts, and perhaps filled with UPC codes, it could contain the entire data chain. Retailers also parse out their data archives to data aggregators in exchange for gaining even better data so as to market with more precision and better ROI. These data aggregators will also want to buy data from mobile wallets so they may complete their data chain. And last but certainly not least the product OEM's may finally be able also tie sales to individual customers, also enabling product personalized product promotions and even 'Automated Product Registration.' We'll complete this conversation in coming days or weeks in an upcoming article on data analytics and the Mobile Wallet.

So, we strayed a bi into data analytics today from the focus of Social, but that is because Social is the 'Prince of Data and Reach.' The bottom line is retailers can not afford not to embrace Social, wherever it goes. Retailers tune into, as do we all at times, WIIFM Radio: 'What's In It For Me' and tune out if the song playing on the radio is not "Show me the Customers or Money.' There is nothing wrong with this of course. Making a profit is the main goal of any business and without ample traffic coming through the doors, it will not matter if you have the best products and the coolest and most contemporary looking store in the world (well this alone could drive traffic via word of mouth - but we'll leave that to another discussion), if you have failed to build an off-ramp and display bulletin boards along the busiest digital and mobile highways and byways, your best customers will be crickets and the bill collector.



About Mobile Wallet Media
Mobile Wallet Media is a media, analyst and consulting firm focused on the future of mobile commerce. The company mission is to highlight industry innovation and provide insights and opinions that will be relevant and forward-looking. The author, Randy Smith, is the primary founder, inventor and former CEO of MobilePayUSA, a TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley Winner.

Mobile Wallet Media Update

Mobile Wallet Media ‏@MWMediaTweets

Were more than just relevant news stories on the #mobilewallet & #mobilepayments.
We now offer a @cnbc video archive! Click here to view page

Battle for Mobile Payments

WED 15 AUG 12 | 01:20 PM ET

Mobile Wallet Media is a media, analyst and consulting firm focused on the future of mobile commerce. The company mission is to highlight industry innovation and provide insights and opinions that will be relevant and forward-looking. The author, Randy Smith, is the primary founder, inventor and former CEO of MobilePayUSA, a TechCrunch Disrupt Award Winner.

Beyond NFC Security For Mobile Payments A Greater Threat Looms

By Randy Smith, Mobile Wallet Media

Tuesday, August 14h, 2012

There has been so much hype around NFC mobile payments security that perhaps other threats have been ignored.

As technology speeds forward at 'Mach 5', we are fast approaching a new destination, the need to secure our smartphones from hackers. Very soon the same types of threats that exist for our PC's may run rampant on mobile. NFC is now in Android phones to power mobile payments, as well as someday soon serving as a key to lock and unlock our cars, computer, home and office. But for NFC to work it must be turned on to transmit it's signal. So it appears there is yet another problem to solve as to how best accomplish this.

CNN Money interviewed Charlie Miller, a security specialist with Accuvant. Charlie was quoted as saying "with doing something as simple as paying for your cab, you may end up getting malware on your phone."

What this malware could do to relay private or financial data is uncertain, but what is certain is that cyber thieves are always on the prowl near new technologies as they are more vulnerable to attacks.

Charlie also stated that "anytime you add new technology to your phone, it increases the risk that something can go wrong." Charlie did not hint at specifically at Bluetooth but it seems this too could be yet another door in need of locking.

Ramon Ray a Editor & Technology Evangelist for Smallbiztechnology.com recently wrote: "When I give presentations on security, especially mobile security, I stress that it’s important for mobile professionals to turn their Bluetooth devices OFF. The reason for this is that hackers can access your mobile devices through their Bluetooth connectivity."

In the CNN Video Charlie points out that we store banking, GPS data and pictures on our phones and implied that malware could be a threat to steal this data. The question for us all is how do we best secure our phones?

Ryan Whitwam in a recent article pointed out that "Android antivirus apps are useless." The story summarizes that the best antivirus app for Android was only 80% effective, with most being 50% or less effective at stopping malware from being downloaded.

Ryan makes several suggestions to how best secure our phones. One suggestion he has is as follows:

"If a relatively simple app, like a wrapper for a website, asks for permission to send and receive SMS messages, that is a serious red flag. In fact, a large number of these so-called “SMS Trojans” are in circulation around the seedier parts of the web. When installed, they text premium rate numbers to rack up charges."

It seems to me like the security front on mobile is a bit like the Wild West in that one must be proactive. To defend one's mobile turf one cannot yet rely on 'automated antivirus' to do the job of policing and securing our phones or devices. With innovation cool new products are born, but unfortunately at first it seems demand always outpaces security concerns, at least until they become a serious problem. So the story is ever-changing, but forever remains the same. Vigilance will always have it's place.

About Mobile Wallet Media

Mobile Wallet Media is a media, analyst and consulting firm focused on the future of mobile commerce. The company mission is to highlight industry innovation and provide insights and opinions that will be relevant and forward-looking. The author, Randy Smith, is the primary founder, inventor and former CEO of MobilePayUSA, a TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley Winner.