The payments industry in North America is evolving fast and merchants across multiple verticals need to think about giving their customers new payment experiences. We caught up with Chris Tyghe, VP of Strategic Development at Ingenico Group Canada, to learn about the landscape for IoT payments and connected screens and how they can benefit merchants across different verticals. Watch the videos below:
What’s fueling the growth of IoT within the payments industry?
Well, what’s fueling the growth of Internet of Things within the payment industry is the explosion of Internet of Things, in general. If you look at some of the numbers out there where they say there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Obviously, those numbers are completely staggering. So if people are constantly connected to the devices in a new way, whether it’s a sensor in your shoe that your phone can talk to, people start having the expectation that they can interact with any device around them. Why would that be any different for payments? As the Internet of Things expands, that experience to connected objects, by default, the payment industry comes along for the ride. So people will expect to be able to interact with a payment device in a way they have never done before.
What are some of the common use cases of Internet of Things (IoT) payments?
If you look into the wearable space, wearable space is essentially an IoT device. You start putting payment mechanisms and security into IoT devices and wearables and that is your number one use case. I give a demo in some of my product demonstrations where I actually wear a payment ring. A payment ring, right now, is the ultimate IoT wearable. I’ll use that ring to pay for something on an NFC-enabled device, and it literally blows people away. That is one of the first instances of a true Internet of Things payments.
What is a Connected Screen? How does it work?
The Connected Screen is basically the world’s first interactive digital display with secure payment embedded into the screen. And obviously, it is Ingenico’s secure payment technology in the screen, leveraging our decades of world-leading technology in that space. What we’ve done, essentially, is taking what is currently a one-way digital billboard and turned it into a two-way point of sale, and that actually doesn’t exist in the world. It’s actually net new, and it’s very exciting.
What are some of the use cases for a Connected Screen?
Some use cases for the connected screen: There’s a couple of ways to look at it from - and I’ll go with a retailer for example. There is a strong case to take a device like this and have it in-store for the in-store experience. So, a user comes in, it’s more of a line busting or a queue busting experience. The user already knows what they want, they come in, they select, they tap, they leave. You’re now providing top-notch experience in-store at a time when retailers are trying to make sure their brick and mortar business is strong. Why not provide a seamless experience like that in-store, so people are more willing to come back?
A second use case is having what is known as a pop-up store. So having these screens in other places, for example, running a promo on that screen. It comes up and it says, “Hey, tap here and you’ll get $20.00 off your favorite item.” And our research shows that the conversion rates on these devices go from 1% on a traditional billboard to up to 15% for an interactive board with Ingenico’s technology where people tap it to purchase. This drives foot traffic into the store. Customers will come, they’ll pick up their item and maybe buy something else when they’re in store as well. So those are two strong use cases for the screen.
Outside of retail, how is the Connected Screen being used in the industry?
There are a multitude of industries that could take advantage of the connected screen and not just retail and merchants. There’s a large industry called DOOH, which is the Digital Out-of-Home advertising realm. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry in itself. So we are partnering, and looking to partner with people in that space that for the first time ever, we’ll be able to do a real-time transaction on a screen in a public space like an airport or a subway. In areas they’ve never been able to do that before, we can actually help facilitate that for the first time.
How does the Connected Screen help create new consumer experiences?
A connected screen is perfect for creating a new experience for a customer as he/she walks in to a merchant. So rather than the traditional model of walking in, finding your product, lining up in a queue, and then paying for your product and walking out, merchants now have the ability to put a brand-new experience in that store. If they can put an experience in there which is essentially taking all the friction out of the purchase: I select, I tap, I grab the merchandise and I walk out of the store - that would actually make a customer want to come back to a brick and mortar store again. Whereas right now, they might want to do everything online or do it from their mobile app. This will actually drive people in there because it’s not such an old-school experience - it’s very new, revolutionary experience.
