Mobile phones have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. Given the rapid pace of developments in the area of mobile finance, the Federal Reserve Board began conducting annual surveys of consumers’ use of mobile financial services in 2011. This 78-page report, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services” (March, 2015) examines trends in the adoption and use of mobile banking, payments, and shopping behavior and how the emergence of mobile financial services affects consumers’ interaction with financial institutions.
What is Needed for Bluetooth Beacons to Incorporate Mobile Payments?
Beacons — those little ad-beaming mechanisms littering storefronts today — have been heralded as the ultimate mobile app partner for retailers. But as they exist today, they do little more than make Madison Avenue come-ons, teasing shoppers with discounts and offers that the beacons (and even the beacons in conjunction with mobile apps) can’t deliver. How can this loop be closed? Can beacons directly process payments? Unlikely, but indirect payments are all but a certainty, although that’s at least a couple of years away.
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