Boston, MA (PRWEB) August 01, 2011
Many U.S. merchant acquirers have started to rationalize their delivery of value-added services and innovative technology. With rising emphasis on mobile devices across the market ecosystem, merchant service providers are now focusing significant development and marketing resources at the intersection of mobile / micro-merchant space.
Acquirers are also bringing mobile solutions to national and global retail brands, but numerous smaller players with agile, slickly-designed solutions are encroaching on this segment. Not only does the mobile revolution have acquirers active, but issues surrounding security, industry compliance, and regulatory impact also promise interesting times ahead for merchant acquirers.
At every level of the merchant acquiring business, competition is fierce. Intelligence about competitor activity is essential for success. Lack of differentiation in new products only transliterates the same issues to a new market.
The latest annual Mercator Advisory Group report on the state of the U.S. merchant acquiring market: The U.S. Merchant Acquiring Industry in 2011: Going Mobile examines not only market data from the last year but also presents analysis and commentary surrounding the most pressing topics, themes, and trends.
This year’s story is mobile. The twist for this report is an in-depth examination of the mobile payment acceptance phenomenon, and how acquirer business models are changing as the market prepares for increased demand.
“Without a plan for niche segmentation and targeted solutions, competition for the general populace of potential card acceptors via smartphone could be quite bloody indeed. Strategies for penetrating the extremely broad ‘services’ sector that may be receptive to payment solutions that utilize mobility should incorporate non-payment related functionality of mobile devices in order to tailor offerings to target segments,” David Fish , Senior Analyst at Mercator Advisory Group and author of the report comments. “The opportunities will certainly become richer with the advent of smartphones and tablets that come with NFC chips embedded by the OEM in the device.”
Highlights of this report include:
