EMV Adoption May Benefit Mobile Payment

As consumers learn to ‘dip’ instead of ‘swipe,’ longer transaction time may push more toward use of mobile payments.

July 31, 2015

NEW YORK – According to an article this week in mCommerceDaily, mobile payments may very well get a much-needed boost from the October introduction of EMV credit card readers at merchants nationwide.

The article cites recent market research that shows businesses and card companies are largely unprepared to implement a massive EMV roll-out in two months. Statistics include:

Only about half (48%) of small businesses will be set up to take EMV cards by the October deadline, according to a survey by Cayan, and more than a third (37%) have no plans to accept EMV cards at all. The study comprised a survey of 344 small business owners and managers at companies with fewer 50 employees.
More than half (55%) of business decision makers say the October deadline should be extended, according to a survey by Randstad Technologies. That survey of 84 executives in large-scale, national businesses found that 42% of companies have taken no steps or are unaware of any progress being made around EMV.
Almost a third (28%) of small business owners who process payment cads are not even aware of EMV, according to a Manta survey of 1,600 small business owners. And about one in four (42%) small business owners have not heard of the EMV liability shift deadline, according to a survey of small business owners conducted by Ebiquity for Intuit.

But, regardless of all this, EMV could still be the catalyst for a behavioral change that impact mobile payments. The biggest difference to consumers using EMV-enabled cards is that instead of a quick swipe, they will need to insert their chip into the payment terminal and then wait. And of course, actually remember to take the credit card out of the machine.

This behavior change, which is not expected to take significantly longer, may be the opportunity for mobile payments to kick in. “A tap of a phone with Apple Pay or Android Wallet suddenly may look more appealing than the new, insert-the-card process,” writes mCommerceDaily. “After all, while a mobile phone payment may be slower than a credit card swipe, it likely always will be faster than an EMV card transaction.”