Mobile Wallets Must Be Better, Not Different, for Consumers to Notice

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Consumers are not excited by the advent of mobile wallets because they don't solve any customer "pain points" and offer no intrinsic advantages compared to swiping a credit card or paying cash, said Anuj Nayar, senior director of global communications for PayPal, on its blog.

He added that for mobile wallets to gain mass adoption, they must be better, not just different from the way consumers pay today. "And your mobile phone just won't cut it," said Nayar.

Although PayPal provides mobile wallet payment services, the senior director stressed that PayPal is not a mobile wallet company.

"Do not call PayPal a mobile payments or mobile wallets company -- just call us PayPal," said Nayar.

However, Nayar did say there is a way for mobile wallets to become the go-to payment method. "Paypal's cloud approach evolves the wallet from the physical thing -- whether a traditional wallet or a phone -- to a seamless, connected experience that follows you wherever you go and feed you what you want, when you want it," he said.

With the cloud, Nayar noted the industry could change as much as it did when online shopping became in vogue.

"We are on the brink of another game changing revolution that will change shopping more in the next few years than the Internet changed retail because it will affect our purchases," the global communications director said.

PayPal is a division of eBay Inc.

X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds