BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - October 9, 2008) - Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS),
surveyed 180 companies to outline the implications and trends related to
proximity mobile payments. Retail, hospitality, and transit companies are
indicating high levels of awareness for mobile payments and NFC acceptance.
Eighty percent (80%) of companies surveyed are aware of this technology
today compared to 63% in 2007. More significant is the fact that 52% of
companies are exploring the use of mobile payment solutions for improving
payment seamlessness, customer differentiation, and loyalty within the next
24 months.
"It is evident from our data that the number of companies that are aware of
and executing the initial steps involving mobile payments and NFC
acceptance has doubled in 2008 compared to 2007 due to mobile payments
ecosystem development as well as the changing economic climate," says Sahir
Anand, senior analyst and chief author of the multi-channel benchmark
report. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5299.
Customer convenience was the key business pressure driving 64% of
Best-in-Class retailers towards advanced POS payments such as contactless
payments in 2007. This year, the top business pressure facing 40% of
Best-in-Class retailers is the need for improved customer retention and
loyalty, in addition to customer convenience as the next predominant
pressure for 35% of Best-in-Class retailers. "The building blocks for any
retail strategy in the mobile commerce sphere has to take into
consideration the return on investment (ROI) for every dollar spent on
upgrading the payment acceptance environment at the POS," says Anand.
While all three maturity classes are assessing cost benefit factors in
substantial numbers,
Best-in-Class are twice as likely as Laggard companies to currently take
the next leap in assessing the change management functions including
transaction risk assessment, cross-channel process impact, data management,
hardware, and POS software changes required for a smooth migration path
towards the use and acceptance of mobile payments at POS. Aberdeen's data
shows that the mobile payments technology landscape is in the early stages
of the development lifecycle. In the last 2 years, advances have been made
in the areas of mobile wallet and NFC applications for remote and proximity
payments, hardware components that are integrated at the point-of-sale, and
the mobile payment services elements related payment gateway and data
services. However, this landscape will continue to reform and develop
further in terms of user interface (UI), and integrated standards for
configurability and extensibility, both for payments and marketing
functions.
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: Gemalto and FirstData. To obtain a complimentary
copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5299.
To access all of Aberdeen's complimentary research please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com.
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more
than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating
demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment
analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,
corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen
http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to
http://www.harte-hanks.com.
© 2008 AberdeenGroup, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617)854-5200
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www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Sahir Anand
Retail Analyst
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5271
Sahir.Anand@aberdeen.com