On my way to work this morning, I deposited a check, paid some bills, researched and bought a new pair of running shoes and made it into work by 8am. After work, I did some grocery shopping, bought a pair of jeans and a sweater I have been eyeing and still managed to get from my office in the South Loop of Chicago to my apartment in Uptown in 40 minutes. All while my credit cards stayed in my wallet.
Take our demanding schedules, add ever-evolving technology and throw in a need of convenience. What do you get? A trend that involves thousands of mobile apps. The long predicted paperless economy is becoming a reality in both mature and developing markets.
Over 141 million people worldwide made mobile payments in 2011. The total cost of those payments was estimated to be around $86 Billion almost double the $49 Billion from 2010 (Gartner, June 2011).
According to appcrwlr.com, a site you can go to rate apps, the top 6 most user-friendly shopping apps are Target, Craigslist, Zappos, Gilt, eBay, and Fab.com. The top 6 most user-friendly banking apps are Discover, HDFC Bank, State Bank Freedom, Affinity Federal Credit Union, USAA app for iPad and Arizona Federal. While banking apps such as Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo are in the top for popularity, they aren’t in the top for being user-friendly.
Google is taking it one step further with Google Wallet. Google Wallet stores all of your credit and debit card information on a cloud. All you have to do is tap your phone to the VeriFone at the register. But this app isn’t just for storing credit cards, it also links with Google Offers. And the app is password protected. If you lose your phone, you can remotely disable the app online. Is this paving the way for never having to carry a wallet again?
The key to any CASH-LESS product design is to address both consumers’ desire for convenience and their concerns over privacy and potentially overspending—all while keeping an app simple, bug free and user-friendly.
The CASH-LESS economy is (almost) upon us. But with so many competing technologies available (e.g. QR codes, WavePay, Paypal, etc), there’s still quite a ways to go before cashless transactions become the norm.
But, for those of you who have successfully deployed it, think about how you can use CASH-LESS technologies to connect with customers: gather insights into their habits, give rewards for loyalty, and/or even tailor offers and recommendations. While face-to-face interaction is being replaced with technology, this doesn’t mean it has to be less personable.