Mercury Research Reveals Mobile Payment Adoption Interest High with America’s Local Merchants

Two surveys underscore merchant demand for simple and easy solutions with support from payment providers and POS resellers

2013 Money2020 Expo

DURANGO, Colo.--()--As consumer use of mobile devices for financial transactions continues to rise, the results of research from small businesses released today by Mercury reveal mobile payment technology adoption is growing among small businesses and is expected to achieve 50 percent penetration within five years.

Key findings from the research demonstrate that merchants want to adopt mobile payments but prefer minimal or no point-of-sale (POS) system upgrades and they want the process to be easy. A majority of merchants are on board to adopt mobile payments within the next two to three years, and most respondents indicated they would rely on their technology or payment provider to implement a mobile solution. Additionally, nearly 40 percent of merchants find value-added services very important and most respondents are already using value-added services or have interest in deploying.

The majority of small business merchants lack technology expertise on staff, so in order to make mobile payments ubiquitous, they need technological support. The entire ecosystem is similar to the “chicken and the egg” dilemma: consumers will not shop using mobile payments if they don’t think it will work, and merchants will not adopt alternative payment technology if consumers are hesitant to use the technology.

“More than half of the people in one of our surveys were the owners or operators of their small business,” said Randy Clark, senior vice president of marketing for Mercury, who, in conjunction with Mercury CEO Matt Taylor, will be speaking about mobile payment technologies at the upcoming Money2020 trade show in Las Vegas. “It is clear from the results mobile payments will continue to gain popularity over the next three years and the dealer relationship is most important when choosing a payment processor provider. Merchants also report heavily reliance on the payment processor to help them implement a mobile solution. This is a huge opportunity for us.”

While interest is high in mobile payments adoption, POS system upgrade cycles are usually between two and three years. While adoption varies by POS type, almost 65 percent of respondents plan to accept mobile payments within three years. Replacement cycles are not decreasing, and 80 percent of merchants plan to replace or upgrade their POS system the same or less frequently than in the past.

Additional findings from survey respondents:

  • Nearly all (99 percent) of respondents accept credit and debit cards.
  • Unified technical integrations with POS (no additional hardware needed) is a key functionality requirement with 71 percent ranking this most important.
  • 47 percent report the POS developer or dealer influenced their decision most when choosing a processor.
  • A full 71 percent of respondents would rely on their technology or payment provider to implement a mobile solution.
  • 46 percent prefer to adopt technology only once it’s been tested and proven to work.
  • 64 percent evaluated two to three payment processors before deciding on their current processor.
  • POS system financing is the most important payment processing feature respondents considered when purchasing a POS system.
  • Overall, 70 percent of merchants are already using or are interested in using value added services.

About the Survey

Mercury, America’s fastest growing payment processor, surveyed approximately 400 small business merchants in two surveys across a variety of industries to inform ongoing research into the adoption of mobile payments. Survey questions focused on the merchants’ current payments processes, payment-related priorities, timelines for adoption, knowledge of mobile technologies and POS systems.

About Mercury

Mercury Payment Systems, LLC is a fast-growing, award-winning payment processing company committed to simplifying the payment chain in support of “main street” merchants. The Mercury Network™ is trusted by more than 500 point-of-sale (POS) Independent Software Vendors, and 2,500 POS Value Added Resellers.

The MercuryPay™ processing platform is the only service that provides fast and secure payments with “fail-safe” high-availability transaction approvals if the credit card provider’s system is impaired. Unlike other processing providers that support their merchants remotely, the Mercury Network ensures that every merchant has a local dealer to help them install, connect, use, update, and expand their choice of POS system. For more information about Mercury, please visit www.mercurypay.com or follow on Twitter @mercurypay.

Contacts

For Mercury
Stephanie Vanderholm, 303-883-8832
svanderholm@metzger.com

Contacts

For Mercury
Stephanie Vanderholm, 303-883-8832
svanderholm@metzger.com