Payment in the OS – eCommerce/mCommerce Converge

28 Dec 2014

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. Sorry for the delay in blogging, capital raising takes much more time than I had anticipated. Hope to tell you more about my NewCo in January. So much has happened since Money 2020, next week I will write a recap blog in prep for my 2015 predictions. Today’s blog is focused on “mobile” payments and platforms (iOS/Android)

I define 4 categories of mobile payments:

1. Point of Sale. The phone used at a physical retailer
2. mCommerce. eCommerce on your phone: buying something from a website in your mobile browser
3. In App Purchase. Normally a subcategory of mCommerce, payment within an App (think Uber on iPhone). Only worth breaking out because ApplePay does this today.. and not above.
4. Digital Goods. Games/Ringtones/Music/Apps (not in scope for today)

Point of Sale

Think NFC.. Not a focus for today.. but a great article from David Evans Apple Pay is Fizzling provided some key numbers. Only 4.6% of iPhone 6 users in a store that accepted NFC/ApplePay used it. Do you realize how small a percentage of use this is (4% of 3% of customers)!? If only the mainstream press realized that “50 new banks joining ApplePay” does NOT equate to usage. My bank issuer friends have confirmed what I’ve been saying.. there is no value proposition here.. and my volume estimates are accurate. Why? ApplePay does nothing beyond what your current plastic card does today.. Consumers just don’t care and Apple has made no effort to work with retailers (to promote at POS).

It would be great to know what NFC payment volume actually is, but the numbers are so low no one wants to talk about them. Overall NFC payment volume has gone DOWN in 2014 (from 2013) due to CVS, Best Buy and 7-11 “terminal configuration changes”. There are approximately 270,000 US locations which accept NFC, of which 100,000 are vending machines. My estimate for US Contactless Payment volume

• 10% of consumers (20M active phones/wallets to 200M Adults)
• 4% usage (very high)
• 2.5% of retailers accepting (150k/6M, excludes restaurants)
• $2.4T US Retail spend (ex Auto, oil/gas, Fin Ser, Restaurants, Travel)

———————

            $240M (1/100^th of a % of retail sales)

I can’t believe I’m wasting time even writing about this number (my real guess is $100M). Can you imagine finding a way to make this PROFITABLE across 12 different suppliers?!

If Apple had 100% of this volume their total ApplePay revenue would be $600,000!! (25 bps). No wonder banks signed that agreement. When I went to Google in 2011, the first thing I told Osama was “run away from NFC”.. everyone I’ve known and loved has lost their lives in this NFC stuff. You could do everything right and it still wouldn’t work (see 12 party fur ball). NFC/Contactless may be very Hot in London, New York, Hong Kong, and a few other Cities (high density, mass transit, cabs, high affluent…) .. but the rest of the world is very very cold.

My analyst friends are telling me that 5 retailers will “bolt from MCX” to allow ApplePay. I told them what we will probably see is a few of them adding the option within select markets (like New York and SFO.. ) but obviously the retailers are telling the truth.. Apple consumers are not beating down the door because of the service. Consumers just don’t care (4.6%).. ApplePay .. just like all things contactless… is only “buzz”. My rule of thumb holds: Behavior Change requires at least a 20% increase in value (unless you live in NYC).

mCommerce/eCommerce

What is the difference between mCommerce and eCommerce? If you bought batteries from Amazon on your iPad while sitting in your living room?… A: _____________? (mCommerce.. !!) It makes little sense to break mCommerce out as a separate category from a consumer behavior perspective.. but it makes TREMENDOUS sense to break this out for an analyst platform view.

Total eCom/mCom sales in the US are approximately $180B/yr (See US Census Data). Note that this is a MUCH bigger payment segment than the $0.24B POS market above. Within eCommerce, there are the BIG 3: Amazon, Visa/Cybersource, and eBay/Paypal/GSI which account for over 65% of volume (ex services, my estimate).

There is massive change of consumer behavior within eCommerce over the last 4 years, as reported today, Amazon see’s 60% if volume going through mobile! Quite a tremendous change from the 5% Amazon outlined just 4 years ago (see article). In 4 years we have moved from a model where 95% of  US consumers bought online on a Desktop.. to an environment where 60% are buying from an Android or iOS device. Now you start to see the strategy drivers for: Apple, Google, Paypal (Braintree), Visa (Checkout) and Amazon (firephone) moves here.

Historically eCommerce payment services focused on the ability to manage fraud, as merchants held all liability in a Card Not Present (CNP) transaction. As such, payment service providers managed card acceptance and also provided fraud management services (hence their pricing of ~340-~600bps vs the card present MDR for CP of 160-180bps).  Paypal’s service was the first of its kind to allow small merchants to accept cards, as the big banks had no tools to manage CNP fraud. All the large eCom specialists became VERY VERY good at managing fraud, building custom infrastructure to assess buyer patterns, and the device which the consumer is purchasing from to score transactions. Today most of their fraud rates are under 8bps (Paypal still charges 340bps).

Move from Fraud Management to Identity

In Europe, Visa and Mastercard shifted liability within eCommerce transactions onto banks in 2006 (see 3DS a Collaborative Path to Failure). This did NOT work out well for all, as the technology was highly flawed. The US never had this facility… a good thing.. and the state of the art in fraud management stayed within the big 3. For more background on this see Authentication in Value Nets. However the billions of dollars invested in building fraud management assets are being rendered useless by identity management and authentication. This is a HIGHLY disruptive force! Existing payment intermediaries have built their position on owning the consumer and managing risk. Mobile changes both!!  I will drill into this next week.

As I outlined in Perfect Authentication: A nightmare to Banks, and Who do you Trust, the ability to authenticate a consumer is far in advance of what fraud systems do. As Ross Anderson said at the Federal Reserve “if you solve for authentication in payments.. everything else is just accounting”. This statement does hold for the credit risk side.. but it does for the payments side. This is what is changing with mobile. From my blog: 

The “KEY” [prerequisite] in value orchestration is owning the Consumer relationship. Therefore Identifying and Authenticating the Consumer is the first, primary, service that must be owned by a platform.  What was a separate “Trusted Services Manager” in the NFC world has been co-opted by platforms which will take a proprietary route. …etc. There is an all-out war going on for the Trust role: Banks (see Tokenization), MA/V, MNOs, Samsung, retailers… everyone realizes this is the “key” to unlocking future value in the convergence of the virtual and physical world.

The impact of mobile and identity on eCommerce is easy to see, as the more “platforms” know about you can be used within the device you use (and trust) the most. Mobile’s impact is also hitting the offline physical retail world, but in a much more experimental phase as the platforms, online retailers and aggregators don’t work within this space (yet).

A new rate tier: Cardholder present

This “new” form of mobile authentication will enable networks to create a MUCH improved version of VBV/MSC, shifting liability onto the bank with an interchange rate between CNP and CP. Who can take advantage of this rate and liability shift? Entities that can authenticate the consumer on the mobile device (Apple, Google, ?MNOs), securely manage a token and broker identity with other parties (see Authentication in Value Nets).

How will Visa/MA roll this out? There are many, many lessons learned in the prior 3DS (VBV/MSC) roll out. Already V/MA have been talking to major issuers and eCommerce service providers. Token issuance is currently a bit of a hang up as the issuers want to get their own TSP services up and running, and the Google/Amazon, … want to run their own TSPs. If everyone would agree to use the V/MA TSP services this could happen quite quickly. But because this is NOT the case, ApplePay and Visa Checkout seem to be the only services positioned for this move.

As I stated previously in my ApplePay blog, when this new rate tier hits, it will free Apple (and others) to transfer the token to the merchant across a greater number of protocols. In store this means that NFC will compete with a BLE experience, with NFC carrying a CP rate and others carrying a Cardholder present rate (and bank liability) that is very close to the CP rate.

Paypal has no position here.. as payments move into the OS.. they don’t have one nor do they have the eCommerce “portal” of Amazon where consumer’s begin their product search.

2014 – Payments Part of OS:

Per my July 2013 blog Payments Part of OS, both Apple and Google are integrating payment capabilities into the OS. Where Google Wallet detractors deride Google because of its lack of progress in payments, I believe they are shifting focus to what really matters: establishing Android as the core commerce platform. In this future world you don’t really care about payments.. they just happen. With great authentication your information is stored in the cloud and you choose what information and payment instruments you want to exchange with a retailer.

We see the first hints at what this will look like in this WSJ article Google Shopping to Counter Amazon.  Note that this is not Google payment… this is Google SHOPPING. Let me emphasize.. the battle is NOT about payment but about delivery value to consumer within Commerce. The focus for innovation investment TODAY across banks, retailers and service providers is Android as the iPhone platform is locked down. Sure Amazon and Bank of America are leveraging Touch-ID but this requires little effort. The key for Commerce Innovation and Value Orchestration is to get 1000s of companies engaged … Apple’s efforts are 95% consumer focused.

This consumer focus is paying off for Apple as they are 3-5 years ahead of Google (and Android OEMs) in handset hardware/SW. However, Google and Amazon are 5+ years ahead of Apple in orchestrating commerce value. Value orchestration is a network business and entails enabling millions of partnerships where consumers and businesses are incented to participate. Apple isn’t exactly known for making money for anyone but themselves. Apple has a MUCH greater ability to manage identity and trust and should be pursuing a strategy of consumer focused identity brokering (see Brokering Identity, and iPhone 6 – Apple’s Platform Opportunity) but are challenged organizationally as payments/identity are deep within a hardware culture, a world where neither are capable of creating partnerships.

Bank “payment” strategy seems to center on control or redesign of existing networks and nodes. For example, Issuers are attempting to leverage old nodes (Cards) and current market position to form a new orchestration role (see Card Linked Offers). Jamie Dimon  created a new Data Division at Chase run by Len Laufer with a bifurcated visa*net. What banks forget is that their role is that of a neutral broker, they were NEVER the starting point for commerce (their network and nodes are weak). The harder banks work to build barriers to entry, the greater the value of finding ways around them….(think bitcoin).  Or in the case of payment in the OS.. making unique assets (fraud) a commodity… the NATURE commerce is changing and the role of payments, how they deliver value, is changing too.

Think about it this way: did you buy an Uber ride on your iPhone because it took your Visa card? Did you even think about Payment? Same with Amazon… did you shop there because of payment? Payment is becoming a back end commodity service and the mechanisms for banks to differentiate are getting smaller. There are many implications for small business. For the last 20 years much expertise has been needed to create an online store, particularly in accepting payment. All of that is changing, if I solve for fraud, integrate my inventory into search and product discovery, merge customer contact and loyalty into advertising and payment, all with standard services… it becomes EASY.

For too long banks have leveraged your relationship to create value for themselves, hitting you with a mind numbing array of products and fees. This is their network legacy.. it is bred with inefficiencies. The bank goal was not simplicity, it was complexity and margin. Products like Apple, Square, Stripe, Paypal, Amazon, Poynt, Tesla are beautiful in that they make the complex appear simple.

ApplePay Expands to Browser

As I outlined above, the key trend in commerce and payment is the move to “mobile”. Today Google wallet works with Google chrome and app store for auto fill and checkout. Expect to see Google make authentication within Chrome, android, and apps much tighter, with Chrome becoming a cross device focus.

Today 90% of my payment friends agree that Apple’s REAL win within the next 2 years will be ApplePay in eCommerce/mCommerce. Today ApplePay’s focus is on in App purchases only. I expect to see ApplePay expand into browser based payments within 6 months or so. Apple may be first to market with the “Cardholder present” function given that tokens, authentication and bank agreements are already in place. From a merchant perspective Apple will offer a free API (akin to autofill) where Apple tokens and necessary consumer information is passed. Amazon Payments and Google already have this capability, but have not yet implemented tokens, biometrics or have bank agreements.

Apple’s greatest asset is its ability to change consumer behavior (see blog Apple and Physical Commerce, and Consumer Behavior). Apple’s reputation is well deserved and earned “the hard way” by remaking: phones, music, mice, computers, apps, …etc.  Through consistent delivery of value within fantastic hardware delivering great (and fun) consumer experiences they earned trust for their products and brand. Consumers using Apple’s in app (today) or in browser (future) don’t even think about using payments… it just works.

mCom/eCom Convergence

When will we know it happened?

• When neither consumer nor merchant had to do anything unique to support an online sale.
• On phone, in app, in browser.. they all just worked and no one even thought about it.
• We used the payment instrument of our choice.

Apple has already arrived at this state with in-app ApplePay. From a technical perspective, key convergence measures are:

• Payment is treated the same regardless of channel.
• Handets, platforms, and networks can pass information, identity and trust.
• Banks accept that consumers can be authenticated without physical presences.
• Developers leverage platform payment services with ease.

Who is impacted?

Paypal. What are paypal’s assets today? Risk management, consumer accounts, DDA Funding,  a few merchants. Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook already have the consumers. The paypal risk management assets are worthless in a new environment. DDA funding looses importance as merchant costs for CNP fall from 340bps to 150bps. What do they have left? Let me know your answer..

MA/Visa. Visa/MA wins when there is card volume. Making payments part of the OS and giving consumers choice of payment instrument is a HUGE win for Visa/MA. As payments move into the OS so does V/MA. They become infrastructure. The losers? Well card issuance costs, risk management costs, fraud management costs, merchant integration costs all start moving to 0.. which means big margin compression for everyone else on the network.

With respect to eCommerce. Visa checkout/CYBS has substantial volume. They can adapt to tokenization quickly, but unclear how they would manage authentication.

Issuers. Imagine loosing all the airline CNP revenue? I don’t see an upside for issuers in this. They have a very poor ability to influence the network and are not well placed to serve in the trust identity role as consumers leave the branch and interact with the bank less often through remote channels. Banking is becoming a commodity service as well (see blog). You should have heard the squeal on the ApplePay agreement.. never before have Banks had something like this handed to them “take it or leave it”. Given the NFC volume above banks may have written if off. But this could turn out to be a big Trojan Horse as this tokenization expands into CNP/Card Holder Present. I believe their biggest fear is that Google will look to follow the model.

Merchants. Merchant that can sell or engage on mobile: Big winners.. mobile conversions, decreased fraud, liability shift to banks, changing consumer behavior. Merchants that are stuck in bricks and mortar.. no change.

Google. Big win. The only company that is cross platform/device. Buying in Chrome or in Android is seamless. Challenge is to move buying “search” back into Google from Amazon. The other advantage to convergence is the ability to close loop on behavior within the mobile/ecom process.. helping google advertising become even more effective. Google’s challenge is in Enterprise integration. Their engineers don’t like working with anyone else’s code. This is where Microsoft and Oracle are headed… helping enterprises engage consumers.

I propose the following metrics to measure/rate “Commerce Platforms” :

1. Frequency of consumer touch (per day)
2. Commerce transactions $/day
3. Number of businesses you work with * the average time spent in managing in store experience…
4. ??

Other Blogs

Payments Part of OS: What does that Mean?

Big Changes to NFC: Payments as Part of the OS

Stage 4 Evolution – Distributed Innovation,

ApplePay – eCommerce Distruption

iPhone 6 – Apple’s Platform Opportunity