Expert: Convenience will drive mobile payment market

Many experts in the accounts receivable industry have been marking mobile electronic payments as a future trend to keep an eye on. However, even with a number of new services and technologies developed, consumers have not fully adopted mobile payment solutions.

In particular, several smartphone payment applications have been developed, but few have been a major success. Despite the low adoption numbers that the services have experienced, Geoffrey Cairns of NFC Data believes that mobile payment solutions are still viable, as long as they are convenient. Cairns told The Australian Financial Review that consumers across the world have balked at using mobile apps because they are complicated to use. He noted that it's much easier to simply swipe a card to make a transaction than it is to log into a smartphone app to access a payment portal.

The task for payment services then is to create an easy-to-use mobile service that consumers want to navigate. Although Cairns did speculate that the smartphone may play a major role in payment innovations in the future, he said that it's more likely that a completely innovative product will takeover the market. For example, a card to enable a user to access multiple bank or financial accounts could be attractive to consumers.

Even with the adoption challenges that mobile payment platforms have been experiencing, the U.S. market is fairly strong. According to research firm eMarketer, mobile payments in the country are expected to top $1 billion this year. Moreover, the source estimated that up to $58.42 billion in mobile payments will be made in 2017.

The driving force behind the industry growth has been the purchase of small items like coffee that consumers make on a daily basis. However, the source noted that consumers are increasingly buying larger items with mobile payment platforms.