Rambus recently interviewed a number of prominent industry experts at the Mobey Forum about the key ingredients for a successful mobile wallet. According to Kristian Luoma of the OP Financial Group, a mobile wallet should be more than simply trustworthy and secure.
“[A mobile wallet] needs to be trustworthy and secure for sure, but those are just the basics. For a mobile wallet to be successful, you need to provide some value-added [features], both for the merchants as well as consumers.”
Meanwhile, Rambus CMO Jerome Nadel says that mobile wallets should be fundamentally easy to use and intuitive.
“In addition, they metaphorically act as what we know as a physical wallet. There are many things that I put into them, they are easy to find and easy to use. They surprise and bring joy and delight.”
Jordi Guaus of Caixabank expressed similar sentiments, noting that user experience is key to ensuring a successful mobile wallet.
“The things we are offering to the customer [should be] cool, useful and relevant. [A mobile wallet should] make it easier for the customer to buy or enjoy the experience when paying – this is the driver of adoption.”
And according to Martin Koderisch of Edgar, Dunn and & Company, the number one ingredient for a successful mobile wallet is the ecosystem.
“It needs to be somewhat established, it needs to be something that you are used to going to, it needs to be something you are comfortable with,” he explained. “Secondly, there needs to be some type of trigger event or activity or a problem that needs to be solved that requires you to go ahead and make that first payment via the mobile wallet and get used to that experience and repeat it over time.”
One can also reflect on the some of the most successful mobile payment apps on the market, says Koderisch.
“I think we can take inspiration from WeChat in China where the [mobile wallet] ecosystem was established and expanded through the app. Then they sort of linked on to the red packets which are these digital payments that are sent around during the Chinese New Year – and really linked on to those as a trigger event. That really propelled the WeChat wallet inside the app and [took it] to the next level,” he added.
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