It used to be that shopping was considered a chore. Except around Black Friday, when it turned into blood sport. But increasingly, mobile technology has made shopping more of a game. With the smartphone at the intersection between store and shopper, let the games begin! From a shopper's point of view, it's snagging the product in the cheapest, most convenient way possible. On the merchant's side, it's targeting ads, offers and incentives, geolocating, attracting new customers and keeping existing ones. In all of this, both sides are becoming increasingly strategic as they engage in this game.
Amy Ter Haar
Apple Pay is shiny, it looks nice, it's fun, but it could have been made much more compelling to consumers and merchants, simultaneously creating incremental value, following the Starbucks model. There has to be a method that consumers can adopt easily. For example, it has to easily work with all smartphones and there needs to be some method of giving more value to both merchant and user than existing payment cards and systems are able to offer.
