GiftCard Partners Blog

GiftCard Partners insights on the 2013 pymnts.com Innovation Project held at Harvard University.

GiftCard Partners Executive Management was recently invited to attend the 2013 pymnts.com Innovation Project, which brought together retailers, payments industry experts, and thought leaders in the payments space to discuss the future trends in the industry. What the GCP team noticed was the overall difference in the way mobile payments and commerce are viewed by retailers when compared to the view within the payments industry. Payments industry leaders believe that since 51% of Americans have smartphones, and 25% have tablets, that mobile payments will gain traction with consumers, and change the way they will interact with retailers in the immediate future. However, retailers have a longer-term view of how mobile payments will integrate into their relationships with consumers. Since retailers need to manage interaction between mobile payments technology and their existing point of sale systems, the process will take time. Although retailers see this as a promising future trend, they also see there being a longer timeline given the extensive work and investments necessary in order to integrate with existing retailer technologies. It became apparent that the key to solving the future of mobile payments is ensuring that all parties involved are working together. This type of joint effort works to create industry standards and benchmarks that will allow variety in the market within a standard structure that meets the expectations of retailers and payments industry technologists alike. Mobile payments are viewed as an imminent trend that will transform the way consumers behave and the way in which retailers will interact with them. Consumers already constantly use their smartphones in retail interaction, from purchasing through credit card transactions on mobile apps, to shopping online for a lower price while in a brick and mortar store, also known as the common “showrooming” trend. It’s crucial that retailers stay current with the latest in consumer mobile usage and interaction, reacting to consumer trends as they are happening, in order to stay in touch and maintain a current relationship with the consumers who drive their business. Retailers are especially interested in reacting to innovations in retail interactions when those trends can affect their bottom line. Mobile payments not only add convenience for consumers but will also save retailers money in the long run. Rosie Rios, United States treasurer, noted that over the next 10 years the United States Government will move to making 100% of federal payments electronically. The transition to electronic payments will save the United States $1 billion. These payment innovation savings are of interest to retailers as they look to the future of mobile payments, their future technology investments, and most importantly the future of their relationships with customers. The mobile payments industry is looking to innovate the future of retail from a different perspective. Mobile payments is a fragmented technology sector with a variety of digital wallets, loyalty solutions, and innovative mobile payments vendors trying to gain traction within the retail industry. Everything seems to be focused on “the next big trend” and while some are realizing that their success was only temporary, other ideas and concepts are mature enough to gain some traction. The mobile payments environment can be chaotic and there are a lot of viewpoints on how mobile payments should work, but it seems that the technologists can sometimes be bogged down with the details. It is important here to not lose sight of the bigger picture and the important question to keep asking; how can this concept be adaptable and usable enough for retailers to be ready and able to jump on board? There is a chasm between where mobile payments vendors want the industry to be and the reality of when retailers will be ready to accept it. At the Innovation project, there was a
ThinkaThon®, where GiftCard Partners’ COO,
Deborah Merkin, and her team was tasked with figuring out what “the next point of sale system” would look like, and mobile payments were a huge part of the solution. The team, partially consisting of Dean Seifert of Vantiv, Eric Holfman of ROAM, and Farhan Ahmad of Barclay Card, came up with a solution that could solve the growing pains of the payments industry. In order to bring mobile payments technologists and retailers together, they first needed to work together to find industry standards. Without the cooperation of the major parties involved, working together to standardize what this industry needs to look like, retailers are going to get lost in outside organizations strategizing for them without their input. When both pieces of the industry are brought together retailers can articulate what they need to fast track mobile payment adoption, leaving technologists to strategize and build the products retailers are looking to adopt. Formalizing clear and relevant points about what vendors have to offer, what retailers need from vendors, and how to bring those two critical pieces together, will put the mobile payments industry on the road to success.

This year holiday gift card spending on both plastic and digital gift cards will top all previous records with sales expecting to reach over $31 billion!  Gift cards have shed their reputation of being impersonal and have emerged as the perfect practical gift item for millions of holiday shoppers and are the most requested holiday gift for the 8th year in a row. Shoppers are expected to spend an average of $47.87 a card, up 6% over last year.  Since the
National Retail Federation began tracking customers holiday purchasing intentions in 2003, the total spend on gift cards has increased 83%. “Consumers young and old want to find the best way possible to create a happy holiday experience for their loved ones, and gift cards are a great option every time.”  Gift cards are a go-to gift for consumers of all ages; adults 65+ will spend the most on gift cards, while young adults will spend the least.  In addition, men will spend almost 10% more than women on gift card purchases. The following charts provide more insight into the 2014 NRF survey results, check out more
here.
About the Survey The NRF 2014 Gift Card Spending Survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to the winter holidays. The survey polled 6,593 consumers and was conducted for NRF by Prosper Insights & Analytics, November 3-10, 2014. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.

We wrote last week about the Innovation Project held at Harvard late last week. The Innovation Project brings together the innovating leaders in the payments and commerce space for a summit that is packed with content and collaboration. Now, we don't like to brag, but our COO was on the winning team for the second straight year. She didn't do it alone however, her team brought together innovative leaders from across the industry. The winning team was a collaborative effort between

Today, the team at GiftCard Partners is participating in the annual ThinkAThon. The 2014
ThinkAThon brings together big brains from all over the payment industry in a competition to solve some of the area’s most puzzling questions. This year’s problem-solving will focus on finding creative solutions within the following areas: