[September 26, 2014]

mPOS Tracker: September 2014 Report Ponders Amazon's Effect on the mPOS Market

PYMNTS.com has released the September 2014 issue of the mPOS Tracker, a PYMNTS Special Report sponsored by ROAM. In the report, PYMNTS ranks the players it tracks, scoring them based on numbers and types of devices used, geographies where solutions are implemented, the number of payment types accepted, and more.

This month's report first highlights Amazon and its official entry into the mPOS space with Amazon Local Register. The e-commerce giant's aim is to serve local retailers, helping them get local sales data to feed the much bigger Amazon. And perhaps, suggests MPD CEO Karen Webster, with the mPOS solution, these small online sellers that use the platform will then be able to use it offline.

The report also indicates that while mPOS began as a solution for sellers at local marketplaces to accept cards, mPOS platform players are now leveraging their relationships with merchants and consumers for "new online opportunities to complement their offline interacting."

Finally, the report brings up another topic of concern in the mPOS world: security. A seemingly ongoing series of breaches is causing the industry to more closely focus on how secure mPOS really is, as well as the best practices to go about security as cyber crooks get increasingly intelligent.

Those who scored the highest this month were those whose platforms enable a variety of capabilities and functionalities - they have the greatest ability to support many retailers and fully monetize the mPOS ecosystem. Those players are: PayPal (News - Alert) Here, Kalixa pro, GoPago, Adven Shuttle, Vexilor from Givex, Creditcall, and ROAM. Five new players joined the mPOS pyramid this month: Amazon Local Register, Bindo, Mercadoetecnia, Ideas y Tecnologia (miTPV), BWISE, and USA Technologies (News - Alert). We also provided updates to seven players: goSwiff, Leaf, NCR Silver, ROAM, ShopKeep, SumUp, and Square.

Key takeaways for September 2014 include:

1) Big players see gold i local markets. Amazon Register is the latest entrant in the "main street" retail scene with a hardware/software and payments solution that extends new value to its existing local marketplace vendors.

2) mPOS is a marketplace's best friend. Platforms that enable local sellers to expand their reach by aggregating merchants and customers are emerging. Success depends on the uniqueness of the products or services offered by those local merchants.

3) Security has become a topic of conversation. The rash of card breaches at retailers has resurfaced the issue that was at one time a very big differentiator for mPOS players - security. However, instead of just being about the security of the reader, the conversation is focused on the layers of security at the hardware, apps, data and customer levels.

The MPOS Tracker™, produced by PYMNTs.com and sponsored by ROAM, organizes the ecosystem into two broad categories: those merchant-facing organizations who supply devices to merchants directly and those who "power" those players and supply them with the mPOS hardware, software, tools and services. Updates related to the player profiles and capabilities are welcome and should be directed to: [email protected]

Download the full September 2014 report here.

About PYMNTS.com

PYMNTS.com is reinventing the way in which companies in payments share relevant information about the initiatives that shape the future of payments and commerce and make news.

This powerful B2B platform is the #1 site for the payments and broader commerce ecosystem by traffic and the premier source of information about "what's next" in payments. C-suite and VP level executives turn to it daily for these insights, making the PYMNTS.com audience the most valuable in the industry. It provides an interactive platform for companies to demonstrate thought leadership, popularize products and, most importantly, capture the mindshare of global decision-makers. PYMNTS.com …. where the best minds and best content meet on the web to learn "What's Next" in Payments and Commerce.

About ROAM

ROAM™, an Ingenico company, helps merchants get to market quickly with secure, cost effective and powerful mobile point of sale solutions, regardless of the technology environment. ROAM's "powered by" mCommerce platform provides the hardware peripherals, applications, tools and services enabling companies worldwide to realize the benefits of using mobile to reinvent their interactions with their customers and to create new business efficiencies. Founded in 2005, ROAM is a pioneer in the mobile POS space, having produced and distributed the industry's first secure mobile card reader and today powers mobile point of sale solutions for many of the leading companies in this market, globally. For more information, visit www.roamdata.com.

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