Tag Archives: mobile payments security

Mobile Technology Trends for 2021

Mobile Technology Trends for 2021

Mobile technology continually improves and 2021 is bound to see some of the greatest changes. As we move into another year of living with social distancing, consumers want contactless payments and more capabilities from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Mobile Wallet Security

It’s not enough to offer mobile wallet payment options next year. While customers want contactless payments, they also want security. Double authentication with mobile wallet payments is crucial.

Rather than just scanning the payment, users will need to enter a PIN or use the facial recognition feature. While it’s another step in the payment process, it’s still touchless and it decreases the risk of fraudulent charges.

Mobile Point of Sale

The Apple store used to be one of the only places you’d find a mobile ‘register.’ Today because of the need to have contactless payments and a way to get in and out of a store fast, mobile point of sale is more common everywhere.

mPOS units are great inside a store, checking customers out where they are rather than making them stand in line. Even big stores like Target are doing this. But, mPOS also helps merchants sell their products anywhere – farmer’s markets, trade shows, or mobile trucks.

Increased Use of AR and VR

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are becoming more mainstream for all industries, not just by technical companies. Healthcare companies travel, and educational companies are taking advantage too. They also provide more opportunities for companies to increase sales without seeing customers in the physical store.

Increased use of Chatbots

No one likes to sit on hold waiting for a customer service representative. Chatbots are making it easier than ever to answer customer questions instantly. This is just what customers want. In addition to everything mobile and touchless, they want instant answers without wasting time sitting on hold. Chatbots answer the most frequently asked questions quickly and if they can’t answer the question, they pass the customer onto a human advisor.

Social Shopping

There’s a reason social media influencers are the ‘big thing’ right now. Everyone wants what everyone else, which is why the rise in social shopping is so great. With the ability to scroll through Instagram or Facebook and buy what you see others buying, it increases sales quickly. Social shopping decreases the lag time between seeing an item and finding it in store or even online. It uses that instant gratification that customers love, making it easy to make impulse buys or just buy products/services they wanted while they’re thinking about it.

Mobile Technology is Making Changes

2021 is bound to be a year of big changes in the mobile technology industry. With possibilities abound, merchants can make the most of the opportunities to serve customers where and how they want service. With the ability to offer mobile and contactless payments, shopping opportunities, and even sales demonstrations, 2021 should be a year of promise and growth for merchants in all industries.

PCI Guidelines for Mobile Apps

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Today the Official Merchant Services Blog will examine the PCI Security Standards Council’s most recent guidelines, and their slow crawl towards comprehensive security requirements for mobile devices.

On Thursday, the PCI Security Standards Council released a set of best practices geared toward software developers of mobile devices.  These guidelines come four months after they released some guidance about mobile payments for small businesses.

The PCI Council, based in Wakefield Massachusetts administers the Payment Card Industry data-security standard and affiliated standards for secure payments software and also PIN-based transaction devices. The guidelines were released during the Council’s annual North American meeting in Orlando, Florida on Thursday, after hinting at a possible PCI clarification in early September.  Present at the gathering were security assessors, merchants, processors and vendors, all preparing for the update of the main PCI standard next year.

The Council announced that it is starting to approve hardware for mobile payments such as card readers that plug into smart phones or tablet computers.  The Council has not delved into the approval of software for mobile payments and have they made it clear when that will happen. They have however, announced that more guidance for merchants will come next year and that they will continue to take input from the payments industry on the serious task of protecting card holder data when payments originate from mobile devices.

Correcting software vulnerabilities is the most important aim of the Council’s new guidelines, as app developers crank out new programs for processing payments on smart phones and tablets everyday.  The guidance covers everything from the payment transaction, access protection, and remote disablement of a missing device.

The last point is arguably the most important aspect of a new mobile PCI security system.  Since mobile payments are true to their name, mobile, the chance of someone running away with your credit card terminal is an increasingly possible risk.  The same applies for any tablets acting as POS systems in a store. An unlucky shopkeeper may open up in the morning only to find part of his or her POS system missing, and all cardholder data inside compromised. This is what the PCI Security Standards Council seeks to avoid.