CHICAGO -- Exploring the disruptive part mobile phones could play in retail payment as well as the parallel inclination for consumers to demand convenience and choice, payment conference opening speakers said retailers could ultimately gain greater control over credit-card fees and customer affinity if they keep informed.
Before about 500 multi-channel retailers and financial-service providers attending the R2 Retail Reinvention 2015 conference at Chicago’s McCormick Place, CNBC reality show host Marcus Lemonis from The Profit talked about homing in on customer desires as a divining rod for technology implementation.
“You don’t want to overwhelm your business with technology either internally or with your customer,” Lemonis said. “You’ve got to have the right balance.”
Addressing the quickly evolving landscape of payment, Philip Heasley, CEO of ACI Worldwide, Naples, Fla., said mobile will put retailers “in the driver’s seat, as they can control the moment, place and choices of payment.”
Retailers and banks would have to establish more direct relationships for this to happen, with banks having to reconsider how they do business and essentially reinventing themselves, he said. If that happens, the dependence on major credit cards or other third parties to settle transactions will greatly diminish.
“The technology exists today for retailers of any size to control the management of their customers,” he said. “It’s my customer, my merchandise and my choice. If [a retailer] wants to add a type of payment, they can add it. Then it’s an issue of brand,” and if customers will want to use that form of payment.
Lemonis also spoke about allowing vulnerability to be a key part of building stronger business relationships, disclosing to the group that he once had an eating disorder. “Vulnerability is important because the willingness to do something with that person is greater,” Lemonis said. “When dealing with a customer, the level of vulnerability you show will determine the tenure of that relationship.”
Organized by Boston-based PYMNTS.com, a payments media and research firm, the two-day conference and trade show covered a number of topics including data mining, cyber security and omnichannel marketing.
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