PREMIUM — This past spring, #Mastercard debuted a voice-assisted ordering and payment service at Pizza Hut in Singapore with the help of Softbank’s robotics division. But an application programming interface (API) that would allow for any developer to build a Mastercard “#conversational” payments application remains in development. The payments network is working on the API now, but […]
Bank Innovation
Focusing on #commerce and mobile shopping led to a 56% year-over-year revenue jump for Ant #Financial’s parent company Alibaba, and the company is going to #keep that #focus as it moves forward into the U.S. market. Alibaba’s revenue grew to about $ 7.4 billion, the company reported during its earnings yesterday, mainly due to the tight […]
Bank Innovation
Interactive forum with speakers from Hilton, Discover, Verifone and others will be held on Sept. 12, 2017 in Chicago. #Retail sales as a percentage of GDP exceed 50% for the largest economies in the world, and increasingly the future growth of the retail sector will be tied to the development and adoption of new #commerce […]
Bank Innovation
Here’s something a little different: #Commerce #Signals posted on Crunchbase that it is raising a #Series B #round, slated to #close in #April 2017. The startup founded by Tom Noyes has already raised $ 4 million, according to the database. Crunchbase is commonly used as the funding-resource-of record. AngelList is the moreRead More
Bank Innovation
MUUME, a company that provides a platform for “#digital self-service” for daily purchases, is helping brick-and-mortar businesses address new #mobile-driven consumer behaviors.
One idea behind #MUUME is to bridge the gap between online and phsysical POS, changing the consumers behavior requesting a more flexible, mobile-friendly buying experience.
More than a platform, MUUME is reinventing the way people shop. Currently, the Swiss company offers three distinct products:
SelfServicePOS allows for digital self-service for retail and food businesses. Essentially, customers select products by scanning their QR codes or barcodes, or they can order at the business with their smartphones. The order is sent to the merchant’s payment terminal and the customer can then choose to pay in a traditional manner at the checkout or through the mobile app.
SelfServicePRE-ORDER allows customers to pre-order products and services while paying for them simultaneously. This can be used for instance for exclusive offers or limited items. The process is designed to allow for a &8220;quick and effortless&8221; buying experience. The feature is also available for food and drinks purchases during events. In fact, MUUME has announced recently a new partnership with Swisscom to integrate this MUUME solution into the app of the Bernese soccer club BSC Young Boys (YB).
Image via https://muume.com/
The collaboration allows fans and visitors of the Stadium Stade de Suisse to use the YB app to order and pay for drinks and snacks through the app starting from August 20th, reducing waiting time and allowing for an entirely digital buying experience.
For the consumer, MUUME allows for seamless, simple and an all-inclusive &8220;self-service shopping and self-service ordering and paying&8221; experience.
Users can get very easily additional product information. This can be done by barcode/QR, Beacon, Wifi and other touch points. Customers can view its description as well as other forms of content such as images and video clips of the product, all through the app. This gives the users a clear added value.
SelfServiceM-SHOP – a Digital self-service for shopping on the go. Either as an individual solution or in conjunction with the other key products SelfServicePOS and SelfServicePRE-ORDER.
MUUME Shopping Flow
MUUME has an integrated cloud-based digital wallet that allows users to manage their funds in various currencies as well as similar monetary means such as coupons. The platform is &8220;multi-bank&8221; and is an independently licensed Payment Service Provider.
For the merchant, MUUME provides an efficient digital shopping experience and a self-service ordering process. This allows for increased digital convenience, which increases sales, customer loyalty and improves resource planning. As the platform allows for instant checkout and payments through the app, merchants are provided with fast liquidity, eliminating cash handling. Moreover, merchants receive monthly customer, order and payment data from the platform.
MUUME&8217;s platform can be integrated into any third party system, and was entirely developed in-house.
A 84-strong company, MUUME is headquartered in Cham, Switzerland with staff members located in Berlin, Krakow and Chisinau. The company is regulated by Switzerland&8217;s financial supervisor Finma.
In June, MUUME raised CHF 2.2 million in a Series A funding round led by Frankfurt-based private equity company Heliad Equity Partners with participation of entrepreneur and investor Hans Thomas Gross as well as the Zurich-based Family Office Keller. The capital will be dedicated to &8220;push product development and geographical-expansion,&8221; MUUME, said in a press release.
Commenting on the new funding, Thomas Hanke, CEO of Heliad Equity Partners, said:
&8220;We believe in the great potential and the USP of MUUME. We are pleased to join the company in its continued development and are convinced that MUUME will be successfully positioned in the #Fintech market.&8221;
The post MUUME Brings Brick-And-Mortar Commerce to The Digital, Mobile Era appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
The evolution of financial payment systems has been a long but interesting journey characterised by sudden changes in underlying #technology. Financial payments and banking started in a very inefficient and traditional way which was slow but still acceptable to the customers due to the stage in the information age. Initially, almost all the fun and joy in terms one double zero percent in shape of activities in the #financial services (Except Non-Banking Services) space was attributable to #banks with all the revenue being collected by the same entities. With advancement in technology, organisations outside the banking industry diversified into financial services targeting margins in the space. These were organisations servicing millions of customers through broad distribution channels, be they #mobile operators, retailers or on-line merchants.
The phrase mobile #commerce was originally coined in 1997 to mean “the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology Singapore’s e-commerce market will hit US$2.99 billion while m-commerce will reach US$1.18 billion by end-2014, clocking an annual growth of 38 percent and 65 percent, respectively, between 2011 and 2014, according to the latest stats released by PayPal with the average consumer forking out US$1,861 a year on purchases. By 2018.
In the early days, banking services were basic; covering deposits, withdrawals, loan processing and interest capitalisation. These transactions were conducted in-branch and one had to physically visit a marble banking hall to conduct the banking transactions also same branch hall all the time. Access to banking services was restricted to the banks operating hours. Slowly, transactions evolved from being intra-bank to interbank with settlements being conducted through a settlement partner..
The introduction of magnetic stripe technology upped the tempo by allowing transactions on ATMs and POS machines through debit and credit cards. ATMs brought about 24×7 access to banking services and the underlying technology evolved from simple cash dispensers to deposit handlers which allow customers to perform a multitude of transaction sets which were previously confined to a brick and mortar banking hall.
The internet age brought about an era which took banking to the comfort of one’s home or office. However, internet banking was quickly coupled with mobile banking which was SMS based in the initial days. Mobile banking paved the unity and collaboration between mainstream banks and telecommunication companies. This fusion brought about the rise of mobile financial services. The most common form of mobile financial services is mobile money – Empowers a service provider with a set of distinct features that provides an intuitive and convenient way for managing service channels with various interfaces under single roof and covers airtime purchase, peer to peer transfers, bill payment and merchant payment. With these advancements, the mobile handset has become a critical channel to accessing financial services. Due to the heavy involvement of regulators in this space, most mobile money services focused on the banked customers. Mobile money services in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and many other African countries took a radical move and focused on the under banked segment of the market. Most of these operations were successful due to the extremely low banking penetration rate, flexible regulation, market need and low trust in banks. Today, mobile penetration has reached levels equal to or surpassing population levels of multiple countries across the globe. Financial services is a key need of any human being and it makes sense to enable multiple sets of financial tools and features on mobile phones.
Mobile Money Solution has got the edge over existing solutions in this domain because of it’s economical and ubiquitous, Flexible & Scalable nature. Singapore’s e-commerce sector will further increase by 13 percent annually while m-commerce will grow 15 percent. To continue its growth and begin to fulfil the promise of an e-money economy, industry stakeholders must work together to unleash convergence, drive customer acquisition, and refine enable technology. Mobile money must have a clear appeal to consumers, the public sector, and the private sector. The Mobile Money system identified a number of key lessons for all of the industry’s stakeholders. Primary among these was that mobile money’s development value rests in its ability to facilitate financial sector inclusion. To do so will require financial institutions and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to work together with regulators on a country-by-country basis. Smartphones, tablets, and, in the near future, watches, eyewear and other wearables, will emerge as new points of sale. Online retailers with a well planned, flawlessly executed, and tightly integrated mobile presence stand to gain the most. More impulse buys come from mobile, with clothes, books, and music noted as leading impulse buys. In 2014, mobile commerce was expected rise to $57 billion (Google as source). By 2017, mobile is poised to represent nearly a third of all digital sales at $115 billion (Google as source). In 2013, physical and digital retailer, Target raked in 43 percent of its digital sales from mobile-only users(www.internetretailer.com)
Savvy mobile shoppers use their devices for more than just clicking the “Buy Now” button. According to a 2013 survey from Deloitte, smartphone owners used their devices to find store locations (56 percent), check and compare prices (54 percent) and get product information (47 percent). Mobile is disrupting the way we browse a store’s showroom. Over a third of users report consulting mobile devices in-store to compare retailers and one out of five go mobile in the store to view products on the store’s website. More importantly for retailers, mobile shoppers were prepared to spend 27 percent more on holiday gifts than non-smartphone owners.
The mobile movement isn’t just for traditional retailers. By integrating mobile into insurance claims processing, the process has become 30 percent more efficient. Looking ahead to 2015, over 80 percent of insurers plan to be using mobile technologies in claims, customer service and field sales.(http://www.baselinemag.com)
On a lighter side Recession & Depression are not synonyms as use of them are way apart like if you don’t make money in business thats recession and if your neighbour makes money from same business thats depression
Banks lost out on revenue from mobile transactions as MMS became increasingly popular. Major success factors of MMS being the flexibility to transact at anytime, anywhere and with access to make payments to utility bill companies, airtime sellers and merchants. To maintain relevance, banks started working on technology based payment solutions in collaboration with card companies and opened their doors to all customers and services. This brought about the merger of mobile money services, mobile financial services and mobile banking services. With this fusion, cross border remittances, peer to peer transfers, payment for water, DTH, electricity, internet subscriptions, income tax transactions can be completed within seconds.
Of late, we have seen companies like Apple bringing NFC functionality on mobile handsets in a bid to claim a share of the mobile payment industry. Whenever an entity outside the telecommunications industry offers a joint payment service with an MNO, the resultant is a hybrid mobile financial and banking service.
Technology is moving beyond 24×7 access so the MFIs (Cross Border & Oceans Remittances, micro loans, micro savings, micro insurance, share trading and ecommerce) should consider occupying this scape. If we evaluate payment channels we see that mobile handsets (via SMS, USSD, NFC, QR Codes, WAP, APP), ATMs, POS, internet, debit/credit card companies and money transfer agencies are widely accepted and available for payments along with Money Transfer for Inter/Intra banks/cities/currencies/countries/continents.
#Facebook is expanding its focus on #payments with a new trial in #Southeast #Asia that allows users to pay for products listed on Facebook Pages with just a few clicks. Read More
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