That said, not all mobile wallets are centered around payments. Both of our retail focused Mobile Wallet solutions AIRSHOP Order and AIRSHOP Loyalty have been built on the idea that value added features are the key to driving user adoption. For example; fast ordering and payments so customers can order anytime and anywhere, geolocated couponing that is relevantly timed to inspire purchasing, skip the line incentives that cut down in-store waiting and lines by up to 60 or 70%, loyalty so customers can feel appreciated for giving their business to a retailer, real time product availability so customers can rely on what is actually available for purchasing in-store. The benefits will drive the adoption, and when that occurs, retailers will have a big time tool to manage their customer relationships; something which just can’t be done as well through traditional shopping. Once the benefits are established, expedited payments can only make the customer journey even better.

Last thoughts
Don’t get us wrong, Mobile Payments do have a very relevant place in the retailer mobile wallet, and are principally important in the mobile commerce, web to store and mobile to store customer journey’s. Especially considering that there is a 66pc mobile shopping cart abandonment rate. In these cases, mobile payments still play an essential role in winning the sale; and retailers need to make improvements by adding more 1 click payment options, PayPal, and digital wallets like MasterPass and V.me. But, considering that payments are still only the last step of the customer journey, the greater importance remains in actually getting customers there.

Read the full article on Fortune
Read the full article on Mobile Commerce Daily
Learn more about AIRTAG White Label Mobile Wallets for Retailers at http://www.airtag.com/AIRSHOP.html

Airshop is an end to end mobile commerce solution enabling retailers to launch self-branded mobile and web apps for advanced ordering & payments. KFC will very soon launch Airshop in 10 locations across the UK which is a lab for international technology testing and roll-out.

KFC well understands changing consumer behavior and the new opportunities mobile commerce is creating for retailers. Paul Borrett, IT Director of KFC UK & Ireland who worked closely with us on the project explained the importance of streamlining the customer ordering experience and hints at the exciting future plans we’ve got lined up for KFC Fast Track. “Our customers lead increasingly busy lives and KFC Fast Track is focused on helping them order, pay for and collect their food faster than ever before, delivering a great experience throughout,” said Paul. “We look forward to working closely with AIRTAG and adding many more innovative features to KFC Fast Track in the coming months.”

Beyond a mobile app, our CEO & Co-founder Jérémie Leroyer spoke to the importance of mobile commerce adoption as essential to a retailer’s success. “To launch a mobile ordering and payment app for Yum! Restaurants International is a real milestone for AIRTAG. KFC Fast Track will renew the ordering experience in a way that meets new consumer demands for efficiency onset by the increasing importance of multi-channel commerce shopping,” said Jérémie. “We are very pleased to work with KFC in carving out a mobile presence that brings real value to end users and we are very excited for the programs roll out.”

KFC Fast Track Customer Journey Snapshot:

• Download the iPhone app in the app store https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/kfc-fasttrack/id604869919?mt=8
• Select the closest or preferred ordering location from a geolocated list of KFCs with the service
• Compile an order by selecting desired products and pay by credit card
• After the order is paid for, check your device for a QR code and order confirmation number for order pick up at KFC.

Customers can pick up their order at KFC anytime on the day an order is placed. When the customer gets to KFC, they will do a “mobile check-in” and then skip the line and proceed directly to the check-out specifically designated to KFC Fast Track users to pick up the order. No long lines, no big waits, KFC Fast Track users will have an easier more convenient ordering experience than ever before. It’s really just that simple. KFC Fast Track users can also save their ordering history, favorite stores, favorite orders and payment details to make re-ordering even easier. It won’t be long before KFC Fast Track includes “Geofencing” so customers can do the mobile check in, even before getting to KFC.

KFC recognizes that the future of fast food retail is rapidly changing. To stay ahead of the game KFC has chosen our Airshop solution to go mobile; the perfect recipe for success!

What is Airshop?

Airshop is a turnkey solution for retailers, including everything needed to launch an entire mobile and web ordering platform for advanced ordering & payments. Airshop as its title suggests enables retailers to digitize there stores and no longer be confined to the walls of a physical store. With Airshop retailers can meet new demands onset by the increasingly mobilized consumer that expects to purchase from a retailer on any and every channel in real time, from anywhere.

We hope to hear from you soon, so don’t forget to join the #MobileShopping conversation by Tweeting @airtag and by using the #KFCFastTrack

GoMcDo: now live in 60+ McDonald’s France locations. GoMcDo enables users to order and pay ahead for McDonald’s products, check-in on the unattended “Easy Check In” Kiosk to pick up an order, and then skip the line. We will be demo’ing this solution with NFC check-in capabilities to show a further simplified user experience.

McDonald’s iPad ordering: A solution that helps McCafé (The coffee chain branch of McDonald’s) baristas take customer orders by iPad directly at the table.

AIRPASS: AIRTAG’s comprehensive customized white label mobile wallet solution, enabling retailers, financial institutions and MNO’s to deliver self branded mobile wallets with NFC payment capabilities.  AIRPASS will be demo’d at MWC with the inclusion of mobile commerce features: McDonald’s fast ordering and Loyalty program integration.

AIRSHOP Loyalty: An innovative Loyalty solution for processing Mobile & NFC Loyalty cards directly at the POS giving shoppers ‘real-time’ access to rewards balance updates. Shoppers have the ability to choose when and where to burn their rewards in ‘real-time’.

We hope to see you at the MWC 2013! If you are interested in meeting us on the road, contact us here to make arrangements prior to the show.

Lear more about the Mobile World Congress.

Recently, our CEO Jérémie Leroyer shared with PYMNTS.com our perspective on Mobile Shopping’s ability to grow the payment industry. “We should think in terms of shopping experiences rather than payments. Shoppers are not expecting a new payment method, they are really expecting a new shopping experience. We have to provide something…that brings more value to the customer.” (Jérémie Leroyer on PMNTS.com)

Thinking about Forrester’s predictions from the Mobile Shopping perspective; more than ever proximity retailers are realizing the mobile phone’s ability to deliver value added services to end users and quickly implementing: fast ordering, loyalty, couponing, advanced ordering and online payments. Adding Proximity payment capabilities to these types of solutions, will be a logical continuation in the Evolution of Mobile Commerce. At AIRTAG we like to emphasize that it may be less about where we can make mobile payments right now and more about the increasing availability of Mobile Shopping Solutions. A lot of retailers are beginning with value added services and we expect to see payment growth stem from the “tacking on” of mobile/NFC payment capabilities.

Read the full article on Mobile Proximity Payments by Denée Carrington of Forrester Research

Read the full interview and podcast featuring Jérémie Leroyer on PYMNTS.com

Mobile Shopping is a new opportunity to provide value added services in-store and everywhere else that improve the buying experience and give shoppers a real incentive to shop in your store. So, from what we saw in 2012, The AIRTAG team has put their heads together to come up with a list of predictions of what we expect to see from Mobile Shopping in 2013.

Apple to enter the mobile payment market adding payment to Passbook

With the Wallet experience that Passbook has initiated, Apple could very well add payments in a number of ways. Some possibilities include, the Linking of credit card details through the iTunes account and NFC payment capabilities pending the iPhone 5S is released with NFC.

The explosion of “closed loop” retailer wallets

Following the lead of Starbucks, many retailers to launch wallets that maximize user benefits through the integration of loyalty, couponing, ordering and payments. This will further indicate the ability Mobile Shopping has to create value added services for shoppers.

First “Voice Assisted” Mobile Commerce applications

We of course are believers in innovation and like to be on the cutting edge of what’s next. We expect to see things like speech activated payments or coupon redemption added to Mobile Commerce applications.

Native apps will still be most influential in Mobile Commerce

In comparison to Web Apps or HTML we believe that Native apps will be the successor in 2013, because they deliver a better user experience. (Because they are written in the native language of each Smartphone platform)

Tablet Shopping “T-Commerce” will continue to grow

With this holiday’s sky rocket in Mobile Shopping, one of the key revenue drivers was tablet commerce. People now more than ever are shopping by tablet at home, on the couch from their beds and everywhere in between. We are certain to see Strategy adaptation from retailers to meet this growth further indicating the importance of an omni-channel Mobile Shopping experience.

On the AIRTAG wishlist for 2013!

Ok. Really we all know, it is not a matter of “if” Apple will add NFC capabilities to the iPhone it is a matter of when. Everyone at AIRTAG is really hoping the  iPhone 5S will have NFC. Apple has initiated a “Wallet” experience with Passbook and most players have aggressively moved forward with NFC strategies so we are really hoping that Apple will join the market very soon.

A re-cap of AIRTAG highlights in 2012

2012 was the year of Mobile Shopping for AIRTAG. We have been very much able to grow as a company through a new office opening in New York. Some of the AIRTAG 2012 highlights included; the launch of the AIRTAG Kit; aimed at simplifying the NFC eco-system and the development of PayPass applications, new innovations to our Mobile Shopping Solutions such as; GoMcDo’s integration with Passbook and GoMcDo drive; enabling shoppers to order and pay ahead for their favorite McDonald’s products and skip the line (even in the drive-thru) and the launch of new solutions for; Starbucks, Carrefour City, G20 including 3D product visuals with 360 views, Ouest Experess, Bonne Journee, Chido, Bert’s, Al Farooj, Dennys and Nooi.

We have a lot if exciting projects coming up in the New Year and everyone at AIRTAG are looking forward to an exciting year of Mobile Shopping in 2013.

That being said, we know it is going to take some time. In spite of where NFC is headed the eco-system is still a bit confusing. Jérémie had an opportunity to share a few helpful thoughts with Mobile N Apps on how the NFC eco-system could be simplified and why the value of NFC in some cases can be very difficult to understand.

NFC is an enabler: NFC is only a technology that is an enabler. Value for the end user must be brought to NFC. NFC certainly is more secure but the other user benefits must be added to the technology which is what AIRTAG enables service providers like; banks, MNO’s and retailers, to do.

NFC is a complex technology: Like any complex and revolutionary technology, things can get pretty confusing because of all the different players needed for the eco-system to work. However, the best way for NFC to continue progressing is supporting an opened infrastructure which is how Felicia technology works in Japan. (NFC equivalent in Japan)

NFC will take time: Because there are a lot of players involved in NFC from MNO’s, banks, financial institutions, retailers, cell-phone manufacturers, service providers and on and on and on, getting the industry together and developing consistent standards across the board, will take some time. However, “We can certainly see, by the strides taken by every major player, NFC is the way in which we are moving.” (Jérémie Leroyer on Mobile n Apps)

NFC & the naysayers: AIRTAG plans to convert the NFC naysayers through Value added services. “NFC is not a strategy alone; it is a technology, which is an enabler. This means that value for the end user must be added to NFC.” (Jérémie Leroyer on Mobile N Apps) AIRTAG brings value to NFC through; creating new and improved customer journey’s; reducing lines, waiting time, card processing, adding loyalty to NFC payments, reducing fees, couponing, digital receipts, linking transportation passes etc. Through value added services the user benefits become clearer which will provoke more demand for the technology from end users.  Read the full interview from Jeremie Leroyer on Mobile N Apps.

Thanks for reading the AIRTAG perspective on the Mobile Shopping eco-system.

What’s in the Kit? The Kit includes, the latest generation NFC Samsung Galaxy S3 with 3 pre-installed white label apps including a wallet, a USB Contactless Card Reader, 5 UICC samples, 2 demo tags, and a 1 year membership to the Developer Program. The Developer Program provides the ability to ask our own AIRTAG developers additional questions, support for issues you may have with the UI SDK or the AIRTAG Kit, additional resources; user guides for the MMPP UI SDK and the AIRTAG Kit, tutorials, manuals, payment scheme support and support for additional Smartphone platforms as they become available. These resources provided in the Developer Program are used by our own AIRTAG developers to build mobile payment & wallet apps. Where else would you be able to get ongoing support from a group of NFC Mobile Payment experts at such a low cost?

AIRTAG Kit in the Media! AIRTAG’s CEO & Co-founder Jérémie Leroyer has had lots of opportunities to share with media all over the world about the AIRTAG Kit. In a recent interview and podcast with PYMNTS.COM Jérémie shares the unique features of the AIRTAG Kit and why, for us at AIRTAG, NFC is worth the wait. One great reason, is that because the secure element is embedded on a SIM, there will be less fraud,  which will result in lower transaction fees for both shoppers and merchants. Jérémie also had the opportunity to share with John Koetsier of Venture Beat more about the Kit and our strategic partnership with MasterCard.

Come and see the AIRTAG Kit! The next live demoing of the AIRTAG Kit will be happening on January 13, 2013 at the upcoming NRF Retail’s Big Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.  Come by our Booth 2483 at Retail’s Big Show to see the AIRTAG Kit live.

Visit www.airtagkit.com to learn more

Learn more about MasterCard’s Mobile UI SDK

Follow @airtag on Twitter to join the Mobile Shopping conversation

Way to go GoMcDo!

Learn more about GoMcDo advanced features

Learn more about the MAPIC awards

Customer Journey  #1: Merchandise selected, Payment method selected, Shipping details are entered and Pin is entered (The phone will supply EMV compliant cryptogram to communicate directly with the retailers payment terminal)

Customer Journey # 2: Shopping is started on a tablet, Products selected, Billing information entered, QR Code is sent. The user would then tap their Smartphone on the tablet to make the payment, connecting the PayPass app directly with the merchants shopping cart

This new pilot is part of MasterCard’s initiative to offer “converged payments experiences, in-store, online or a mobile device.” (MasterCard Press Release) With the approach of the holidays consumers now more than ever are mobile shopping and showrooming for convenience and to maximize savings. It’s great to see MasterCard proactively responding to consumer behavior changes by offering easier ways to pay when Mobile Shopping both in-store or anywhere else.

Read the full MasterCard Press Release here

If you missed our big announcement, we have also launched the AIRTAG Kit, now available for purchase via www.airtagkit.com. The AIRTAG Kit is a set of smart tools that speed and simplify the development of PayPass applications using MasterCard’s Mobile Payment User Interface Software Development Kit. For the first time, all the necessary tools for developing PayPass and Wallet apps, are available in one package including a community of support through our Developer Program.

AIRTAG’s CEO and co-founder Jérémie Leroyer, had the opportunity last week to share his insights with pymnts.com on the future of NFC and why the AIRTAG Kit is so unique. AIRTAG has never been solely focused on mobile Payments, instead we see Mobile Payments as part of the larger equation we like to refer to as Mobile Shopping. Our solutions support different payment schemes and technologies depending on the retailer or bank that we are partnering with, in some cases NFC but also payment schemes like PayPal.

The infrastructure for NFC is going to take time because all the players need to secure strategies and “change comes slowly in financial services.” (Robert McGarvey, Credit Union Times) And this delay causes skepticism from consumers. However, AIRTAG agrees that the future looks bright for NFC because it is simply more secure for the end user, which means lower fees for merchants.

“When there is more security with payments, fraud is going to be lower. As fraud is going to be lower due to the security, of course fees are going to be lower. And this is very interesting for merchants, and this is what merchants are looking for … a solution that is cheaper for them.” (Jérémie Leroyer, Pymnts.com)

The penetration will be slow and according to Jérémie it will be a few more years before we even see 10-20% of transactions done by NFC Mobile Payment. With these various obstacles, the AIRTAG Kit is aimed at lowering the entry barrier for banks, financial institutions and MNO’s, to simplify the development of PayPass apps, to sooner get them into the hands of the end users.

Slow change from financial institutions has been expected. Nevertheless it cannot be overlooked that mobile phone user behavior is changing everything. As we move into this holiday season it is interesting to think about how the capabilities of Mobile Shopping have and will continue to change our life since the mobile boom with the release of the iPhone in 2007. This holiday 1 in 4 shoppers will purchase by mobile according to research from Shopify and 43% will purchase by mobile next year, emphasizing the consistent and steady incline we are going to see in purchasing from the mobile channel.

Listen to the podcast with Jeremie Leroyer on payments.com

Read more from Shopify on  predictions for this seasons holiday shopping