Mobile Payments: Adornments For the U.S., mVisa For The Unbanked In Nigeria

Taking The Fear Out Of The Path To Omni

This week, Visa has big news for Nigeria. Adornment is also a theme as corporate activity sees Mary Kay consultants with new Bluetooth readers paired with Smartphones while innovation activity sees a new wearable spendable, the first EMVCo-compliant NFC ring. Although valuable in its own way, it does lack some of the sparkle of its higher carat counterparts.

From makeup to jewelry, mobile payments are all about accessorizing going into the fall season. In this roundup, Global Payments is providing Bluetooth technology and mobile payment capabilities to Mary Kay Sales consultants; iZettle, the U.K. mobile payments leader, might yet be toppled; Walgreens is integrating its rewards program with its Android app; and we have the launch of the first EMV-complaint payment ring —exquisite gem devotees are drooling. Let’s check out mobile fashion week.

Visa Reaching The Unbanked In Nigeria

Visa announced its mVisa service is coming to Nigeria. The company hopes to roll it out later in this year. When paying for goods, consumers will scan a QR code or enter a merchant’s number into their phones. Payment will come from the consumers’ Visa accounts.

The new service is intended to provide access to funds for Nigerians, 150 million of whom use either smart or basic phones to transact. The unbanked will be served because consumers can use mVisa agents to access cash where there is no ATM network. Merchants will benefit because the cash-based informal economy, which goes unreported and represents up to 60 percent of Nigeria’s economy, will suffer as more payments go digital.

This rollout is part of Visa’s 2015 commitment to the World Bank to make electronic payments a reality for 500 million more people worldwide by the end of 2020.

Global Payments, The SME Market And Mary Kay

Closer to home, Global Payments announced that it will provide EMV and contactless mobile payment capabilities for Mary Kay Cosmetics independent beauty consultants in Canada. Mary Kay has 3.5 million independent beauty consultants and $4 billion in annual global sales.

Consultants will don a Bluetooth reader that pairs with Apple iOS or Android smartphones or tablets, to accept payment of credit and debit cards. Global Payments will also embed the retailer’s inventory catalog and digital receipts within the app, while consultants’ business activities can be recorded and reports pulled from a portal.

The motivation behind the partnership for Global Payments is an initial onslaught into the SME market. According to Rene Belanger, president of Global Payments Canada, “Our relationship with Mary Kay will significantly increase our mobile payments presence in the SME market and solidify Global Payments’ position as a leading provider of mobile payments technology solutions across Canada.”

Mobile Payments Startup OPER Raises $750,000

A St. Louis-based startup has defied the odds and raised $750,000 during a slowdown in funding for Fintech startups. According to the KPMG Fintech report, Q2 shows investment in VC-backed Fintech deal activity dropped to a five-quarter low in Q2 2016.

Serra Ventures, which provided the financing, is showing confidence in OPER — short for order, pay, earn, redeem — a mobile payments and rewards platform. An initial commitment of $250,000 has been made, with an additional $500,000 to be committed over the rest of the year. OPER is led by co-founder and CEO David Laiderman, who is seeking a total of $1.5 million.

OPER provides a user rewards program linked to mobile ordering and payments; users receive 5 percent back on all local restaurant purchases. Already the app is generating $1 million in sales for local restaurants in St. Louis with 10,000 people currently using the app. When the company launched in October, it had more than 100 restaurants on its platform, and that that number has since doubled.

Serra Managing Partner Tim Hoerr said of OPER CEO Laiderman, “David and his team are executing beautifully on a well-conceived strategy.”

According to an OPER press release, the company plans to use the capital to expand into new geographic areas – namely, Denver and Los Angeles.

iZettle To Be Challenged In The U.K.

iZettle, a Swedish mobile payments company, has been in favor among consumers in the U.K. for about four years. The company is known for its small card-reading machine, which allows small businesses to accept cards in an EMV-controlled world at a lower cost than the larger tech companies would charge.

The U.K. has embraced mobile POS at a much faster rate than the U.S. Contactless payments by consumers have soared, with spending in the first six months of 2016 already exceeding the total for 2015. By 2021, mobile POS transactions in the U.K. are expected to account for one-fifth of all retail transactions; currently mobile POS represent 4 percent of transactions, according to Juniper Research.

But a formidable opponent has just entered the ring. Shopify is a Canadian startup that went public with unicorn valuation ($1 billion) on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges, and it’s launching its own card-reading device. Shopify already has 30,000 eCommerce sellers that use its tools in the U.K., which is its second market after the U.S.

The new card reader is a push by Shopify to grab market share from both iZettle and Square. According to Cityam, Square has been busy in the corporate mobile scene, setting up a U.K. company, and in the upwardly mobile scene, adding Lord Paul Deighton, a former commercial secretary to the Treasury, to Square’s board, which will add a dose of nobility if nothing else to senior executive meetings.

Shopify’s device works with iPhones and iPads, and supports contactless cards, chip and pin and Android and Apple Pay.

Other competitors to iZettle, which is the most established device in the U.K., include startups SumUp and PayPal Here.

Walgreens Adds Rewards Program With Android Pay

Walgreens is now the first retailer to integrate its rewards program with Android Pay. When using Android Pay, consumer loyalty accounts will be updated automatically at checkout, avoiding the need to scan a rewards card. The company hopes that the checkout process will go quicker with Android Pay.

“We want to make in-store payments simpler for everyone, so we’ve worked with Walgreens to implement Balance Rewards with Android Pay in their stores nationwide — giving customers instant, frictionless access to their loyalty card when they pay,” said Pali Bhat, Google senior director, product management.

Spendable Wearable Jewelry

Who needs that untreated oval-cut ruby ring when there’s an EMV-complaint payment ring that you can wear and use to pay for stuff? NFCRing has created the world’s first EMV-compliant payment ring, which incorporates a contactless smart chip from Infineon Technologies AG. What could be more exquisite?

Not only that, but the tiny, waterproof wearable works like a contactless payment card. Users hold the finger wearing the ring close to an EMVCo contactless-enabled payment terminal that uses NFC technology to make a purchase.

According to Shelly Solverstein, COO of NFCRing, “The Infineon security chip is the only solution available on the market that allowed us to realize the NFC payment ring while still meeting EMVCo’s toughest contactless performance requirements.”

So now consumers can not only wear something of value on their fingers, but let those fingers do the walking and spending in stores, too.