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Mobile payments are revolutionizing the way customers pay for their food or merchandise at restaurants. More and more food establishments now accept a mobile payment that does not involve cash or a credit or debit card. Why? Convenience for both the customer and the proprietor. As these payment programs are fairly inexpensive and do not require much technical knowledge, many businesses, both large and small, have adapted to this relatively new technology. In the restaurant industry, accepting mobile payments has been a boon to small establishments in terms of cost-savings, record-keeping, and ease of use.

Consider the following 4 benefits that come with accepting mobile payments at restaurants.

1. Integrate and Increase Incentive Programs.
One of the biggest benefits of using mobile payments is the ability to integrate customer incentive and loyalty programs into the application. Traditional programs require customers to present key ring tags or punch cards or to supply information, such as a phone number, with every purchase. Mobile payment systems store customer information in the application and then save new information every time the restaurant processes a mobile payment. Customers value mobile technology that links payment to a loyalty or incentive program. As new customers become repeat customers, revenue increases, making the program worthwhile for both parties.

2. Track Customer Trends and Inventory.
If smaller restaurants have difficulty tracking customer trends and inventory, incorporating a mobile payment program erases that issue. This technology is much more than a payment service; because it also tracks data processes to help restaurant management to understand customer preferences and needs. For example, a restaurant may learn that it sells the most chicken wings on Friday nights and can plan for that. When restaurants meet customer demands, they increase sales and customer service, while improving their reputation within their demographic.

3. Increase Customer Checkout Speed.
Customers appreciate fast service, particularly during the payment process. Both staff and customers enjoy a significantly faster payment process with a mobile device instead of a credit card or cash. Since customers are more likely to return to a restaurant that offers a totally enjoyable dining experience – from start to finish – repeat business increases. Additionally, the time saved with mobile payments directly increases profits because more customers are able to dine during a single time period. For example, a restaurant that has a lunch rush on weekdays benefits from offering this type of payment.

4. Save Money on Credit Card Fees.
Accepting credit/debit card payments may not be an option for small restaurants, particularly those in remote locations, due to the high cost of the technology to process a payment and associated fees. For example, farmers’ markets and food truck vendors are unlikely to accept credit card payments. This fact impacts sales revenue, since customers must have cash on hand to patronize these establishments. Restaurants that implement a credit/debit card payment option via mobile payments see an immediate increase in both sales and customer base.
Many mobile payment companies charge lower transaction fees than credit card companies. This means direct savings for a restaurant. As each company has a different structure for its payment program, restaurants need to weigh all options to determine which mobile payment company is most cost-effective.

About the author:

Was 2012 the year of mobile? Well it was pretty busy for Optism as we continued our grow with new mobile marketing rollouts around the world. Here at the blog, we kept you up to date with the latest news and analysis in the world of mobile as we covered everything from mobile payments and mobile wallets to mobile marketing and mobile campaigns plus a sprinkling of retail, privacy, permission and SMS. Here is a recap of all our blog posts for 2012. Enjoy.

20 Months of Permission Marketing Blog Posts
By Optism Team, Jan 6, 2012
To kick off the new year, we look back at all the great blog posts about permission marketing over the past 20 months — including our regular Permission Marketing in the News articles about the mobile industry and all 12 of the chapter reviews of Seth Godin's Permission Marketing. Enjoy!

What Marketers Need To Know About Mobile Apps
By Optism Team, Jan 20, 2012
From brands and agencies to Millennials and veteran observers, I encourage each to give their take on the issues and opportunities around mobile — specifically permission-based mobile marketing. Today we take a step back and look at the Big Picture and examine the questions posed in an even bigger debate going on in the industry: what is the value chain? And, more importantly, what is the value of apps?

Thinking Human: Six Steps for Building a Successful Opt-In Mobile Marketing Strategy
By Mihai Vlad, Optism Team, Jan 27, 2012
Not that long ago, people bought everything from local shops. Shop owners had personal relationships with their customers. They learned through conversations with these customers what types of products and services suited them. With mass marketing, this all changed. We gained a lot in efficiency and economies of scale, but sometimes we lost that all-important human relationship. Today, we can get up close and personal again by using a mobile marketing strategy that employs permission-based techniques.

What’s hot in mobile marketing today? Read the IJMM to find out!
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Feb 3, 2012
A new issue of the International Journal of Mobile Marketing (IJMM) has been published, featuring the latest thinking on how the mobile channel can be used effectively for marketing. The award-winning IJMM collects insights and research from leading academics, students and industry professionals around the globe. The Mobile Marketing Association’s Academic Outreach Committee oversees the IMJJ’s publication in consultation with an Editorial Review Board made up of academic and industry professionals.

Optism Blog Series: A Book Review of Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing PDF
By Optism Team, Feb 14, 2012
We have taken our Blog Series on Seth Godin’s book Permission Marketing chapter by chapter and created a handy little mobile permission marketing PDF. Now you can read (and share with others) about the importance of permission marketing and  how permission marketing techniques can positively affect any mobile marketing campaign. Enjoy.

Optism Goes to Mobile World Congress
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Feb 17, 2012
This year at MWC, we will be showcasing a complete Mobile Commerce offering that includes our permission-based Mobile Marketing solution, Optism, as well as the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Wallet Service and Digital Media Store. Our Mobile Commerce solution addresses the entire lifecycle of user purchases from preferences, promotion and discovery, to storefronts and settlement. Thomas Labarthe, Vice President of Mobile Commerce Solutions, will be at MWC ready to talk to you about how our Mobile Commerce offerings can help you foster new business opportunities.

Let’s Keep Mobile Marketing Simple, To Make It Big (!)
By Hani Ramzi, Feb 24, 2012
Show me a world-leading company, and I’ll show you a management that understands the value of simplicity and the danger of complexity. Indeed, too much complexity can drag companies down a slippery slope that eliminates gains, interferes with efficiency and ultimately destroys competitive advantage. However, understanding that less is more (keeping it simple) generates profits, growth and tremendous customer satisfaction.

Marketing, Commerce, Wallet and Broadband – the Perfect Storm at Mobile World Congress
By Optism Team, Mar 7, 2012
The Optism team is back from Barcelona, the home of Mobile World Congress, and we’re brimming with excitement! Mobile advertising, mobile wallets and mobile commerce were some of the key “buzz” words at the show this year and the GSMA made sure that its conference programme was chock full of information on these topics.

How Come Everyone Is Asking the Wrong Questions About Mobile Wallets?
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Mar 23, 2012
Since our inception, everyone at Optism has been focused on providing more value for our customers with a special emphasis on creating a great experience for people through our mobile solutions.

Insightful Book Reveals How To Work, Create & Sell With Digital Natives
By Optism Team, Mar 30, 2012
From marketing to media the digital native generation is impacting all aspects of how we do business. Michelle Manafy, a contributor to and co-editor (with Heidi Gautschi) of the book Dancing With Digital Natives: Staying in Step with the Generation That is Transforming the Way Business is Done (May 2011) tells why we must all learn to participate in two-way conversations.

Giving Up Privacy for Convenience
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Apr 6, 2012
Recently, I discussed that the wrong questions were being asked about the development of the mobile wallet – namely, that that there was not enough industry focus on the needs of the consumer. This week, I focus on the privacy of the consumer and how much personal information a consumer is willing to give up for convenience

The future is bright for mobile commerce as Optism marks its second anniversary
By Optism Team, Apr 13, 2012
Two years ago, we started with a simple – but innovative – idea. We introduced a permission-based mobile marketing solution, called Optism, which put the user at the center of the experience. We asked people to tell us a little about themselves and their preferences so we could be sure that the ads they received on their mobile devices were relevant to their lives. And we gave them the ability to opt out of the service easily. We told them exactly what we were going to do and then we did it. Finally, we assured them that we would always respect their privacy.

MMA Forum Singapore – Looking towards a smarter tomorrow
By Optism Team, Apr 18, 2012
The first of the MMA Forums for this year will be taking place in Singapore next week, 23 – 25 April. This year’s Forum is bringing together the world’s leading mobile marketers and big brands to showcase smart approaches to mobile marketing. Through their examples and discussions, you’ll learn how to capitalize on the power of mobile in your own endeavors.

There Is No Such Thing As Mobile Or Electronic Commerce Anymore
By Anthony Belpaire, Apr 20, 2012
You may have read it: Best Buy’s Q4 results were below the expectations and the chain is closing 50 big box retail stores.  Margins are eroding as the retailer is being squeezed by both online retailers such as Amazon and discount stores like Walmart.

Carnival of the Mobilists #268
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Apr 24, 2012
Welcome to Optism’s first blog acting as curator for the Carnival of the Mobilists. In our dynamic industry, we’ve found that keeping abreast of what ecosystem members are saying is critical to staying on top. That’s why we published our Permission Marketing in the News blogs for almost two years! Now, we’re happy and honored to be a Carnival of the Mobilists host — and we’ve got a great collection of articles to suggest to you this week.

Mobile Enabling Rewards for Consumer Behavior
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Apr 27, 2012
Social Media’s influence across the ecommerce landscape has been profound. With so many choices and conflicting information about which products to choose, consumers are increasingly relying on their social networks both off-line and online to query their community about the right product and service choices. I’ve done it myself and asked my Facebook crew for recommendations on which gaming system to get for my kids. Why did I do it? Because it’s real-time feedback and it makes my life easier. In addition to listening, consumers are also broadcasting their recommended products out to their community. No matter whether they are listening or broadcasting, consumers have become more sophisticated and more careful about their shopping choices — using all available options.

MMA Forum Singapore Recap: The Shift from “Why Mobile to How Mobile?”
By Avtansh Sharma-Optism Team, May 4, 2012
MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) Asia Forum unfolded on April 23-25 in Singapore. Thanks to the efforts by the MMA, the increasing presence of media agencies and brands in this forum clearly indicates their necessity and importance to harness mobile as an effective channel to reach the consumers in the region. The presentations, discussions and conversations over these 3 days highlighted how the development of the mobile marketing and advertising industry is contingent on a deeper understanding of tech-equipped digitally-aware consumers, who increasingly shape the new emerging media.

Key Findings from the JWT 2011 Mobile Holiday Shopping Experience
By Optism Team, May 11, 2012
Mobile users want a better shopping experience was the key takeaway from a report by advertising agency JWT, who surveyed 465 US mobile users about their shopping experiences during the 2011 holiday season. The survey reported that a majority of the respondents are now using their phones to conduct shopping tasks like getting price and product information, conferring with friends about product choices, sharing product information with the social networks and making mobile purchases.

Can Mobile Help Retailers Compete?
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Jun 1, 2012
For years, brick and mortar stores in the US competed with each other on price, selection and service. The advent of online shopping has effectively taken away price and selection, so physical stores increasingly need to compete on service. Mobile has the potential to level the playing field for stores looking to deliver the best service to consumers.

Optism Goes to the MMA Forum in NYC
By Optism Team, Jun 8, 2012
Optism (Alcatel-Lucent) is excited to participate at the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Forum in New York City next week, from June 11 – June 13^th.

Optism Wrap-Up of the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in New York
By Optism Team, Jun 15, 2012
It has been a busy week for Alcatel-Lucent’s Optism as the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Forum made its annual stop in New York City this week.

What Will Be the Compelling Reason That People Start Using Mobile Payments?
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Jun 22, 2012
Using your mobile phone to make payments is still a novelty in the US with an estimated number of users of mobile payment solutions like Google Wallet, PayPal, LevelUp, Square, and others — totals less than a million. While we know that mobile wallets and mobile payments usage will ultimately become commonplace; some people are already using terms like revolution and wide-spread adoption. Until we reach several millions of users and trillions of dollars spent, we can hold off on announcing the mobile payment revolution.

Trust: A Competitive Advantage for Companies
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Jun 29, 2012
In 1991, the insurance company USAA sent out refunds of the insurance premiums that servicemen had paid while serving in the Gulf War reasoning that these soldiers can’t drive their cars while they are thousands of miles away. Over 2,500 of these soldiers returned the money, in effect saying “keep your money but just be there when we really need you.”

Why Mobile Carriers Will (Not) Partner with Google Wallet
By Anthony Belpaire, Jul 9, 2012
Mobile service providers have a strong impact on device distribution.  Remember you bought your latest smartphone at the Verizon or O2 store around the corner? Especially in markets where sales bundles – subscription plans combined with subsidized handsets – are a well-adopted commercial practice, service providers have a strong impact on which devices get distributed.

Tap In to the Power of Digital Moms
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Jul 13, 2012
Digital Moms in the US are an increasingly important demographic for marketers. Mothers are accumulating more wealth and making more shopping choices and using more technology than the average person. Digital moms are more likely to be owners of smartphones and more likely to consult others when making purchase decisions.

LevelUp Upends the Mobile Payments Paradigm
By Optism Team, Jul 20, 2012
LevelUp, the mobile payments division of SCVNGR, sent a cannonball shot last week across the bow of mobile payments and credit card companies by waiving credit card processing fees for retailers during mobile payment transactions. This could be a highly disruptive moment for the traditional payments industry by potentially reducing the $50 billion dollars that credit card companies currently charge retailers and providing retailers new opportunities via mobile payments to deliver added value to consumers. So far, other mobile payments players like Google Wallet, Square, PayPal, ISIS, Inuit, VeriFone and Dwolla have not followed LevelUp’s lead.

Mobile Marketers Should Not Violate Privacy, Location and Permission
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Jul 27, 2012
For almost 60 years, there was a symbiotic relationship between consumers and marketers over the amount of advertising flashed on TV screens, radio and newspapers. Consumers got free or subsidized content and marketers got huge market shares in order to push their wares. The slow decline of these traditional media outlets, caused by the advent of the Internet, DVRs, satellite radio and mobile phones, has marketers scrambling for new ways to target audiences on these new platforms.

Starbucks is the Grande Caffe Mocha of Permission Marketing
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Aug 3, 2012
Starbucks has been one of the most innovative companies when it comes to mobile and permission marketing with their use of SMS, mobile apps and mobile commerce. Last year, I featured their innovations in mobile payments. Now we have an opportunity to add another example of how the company is meeting the permission expectations of consumers with an excellent multi-channel campaign.

Optism Blog Recaps The First Half of 2012 in Mobile
By Optism Team, Aug 10, 2012
August is a good time to reflect so we thought it would be a good time to look back at all the mobile content we have created here on the Optism Blog.

Optism and Etisalat bring Permission Mobile Advertising to Nigeria
By Optism Team, Aug 17, 2012
We are very happy to announce our partnership with Etisalat Nigeria and the official launch of our Optism-enabled permission-based mobile advertising service. During a limited initial launch in the beginning of 2012, more than 800,000 subscribers opted in to participate in the mobile advertising service known as EasyAdz. Now agencies and brands can use the EasyAdz service powered by Optism to engage with all of Etisalat’s 13 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria.

Can we get rid of payment terminals?
By Anthony Belpaire, Aug 31, 2012
Some might call it the nerdy behavior of a passionate m-commerce professional, but each time I check out at the grocery store I am intrigued by these small, strangely designed payment terminal devices on the counter. They're a mix of metal, plastic and unhandy wires, key paths with flashy color combinations, and a display that seems to date from the eighties. In various countries, such as Turkey, you even see several of these devices on a single counter – resulting in even more unhandy wiring.

Apple Provides Consumer Value with Passbook, A Mobile Wallet
By Optism Team, Sep 7, 2012
In June, Apple unveiled the new features of its pending IOS 6 mobile software release, including a new app called, Passbook. This is a mobile app that organizes store cards, gift cards, coupons and even boarding passes and concert tickets. Apple describes Passbook as;

Carnival of the Mobilists #281
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Sep 12, 2012
Welcome to Optism’s second blog post acting as curator for the Carnival of the Mobilists. In our dynamic mobile industry, we’ve found that keeping abreast of what ecosystem members are saying is critical to staying on top of new and exciting trends. We are happy and honored to again be a Carnival of the Mobilists host.

Optism’s 50 Best Mobile Marketing Campaigns
By Optism Team, Sep 21, 2012
Our crackerjack staff reviewed a bunch of mobile marketing campaigns over the past few years and we picked 50 of what we thought were the best. We chose innovative campaigns that used mobile advertising, SMS, QR Codes, Mobile Apps and Mobile Commerce from companies including Starbucks, Macy’s, Target, O2, RedBox, McDonald’s and a couple of our own. We salute these companies for their ingenuity and hard work in creating these campaign that delight and inform us as mobile consumers. Stay tuned for next year’s picks.

360-Degree View of the Consumer Is Going To Require Retailers to Do a 180 by using Mobile
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Sep 28, 2012
In July, Oracle published a 40-page industry scorecard, answering the question, “When it comes to better data management, how are industries doing?”

Crikey, Africa is big. Results from a Mobile Campaign in Africa
By Alex Meisl, Sponge Ltd., Oct 5, 2012
Africa is home to one of the world’s richest men Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, the King of Cement who is worth $10B (US) and ranks #76 in Forbes billionaires list.

How to Best Acquire Customers via Mobile (With Their Permission)!
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Oct 12, 2012
In a fantastic post Mobile Marketing 2015: Rethink Customer Acquisition, Intent Targeting about how brands can either delight or disappoint their customers, Avinash Kaushik outlines his mobile experiences with a few of his favorite brands. Mr. Kaushik outlines 4 mobile success factors that determine whether a brand will continue to grab the “attention of the consumer” in this increasingly on the move world.

Facebook Violates Privacy and Permission
By Optism Team, Oct 19, 2012
In August, the United States Federal Trade Commission announced a completed settlement with Facebook regarding privacy violations of its now one billion users. In November of last year, the FTC had issued an eight-count complaint against Facebook saying that it had violated federal law prohibiting unfair and deceptive business practices.

Mobile Payment Wars: Report from the Front Lines
By Optism Team, Oct 26, 2012
We are at the cusp of a worldwide explosion of innovation in mobile payments and commerce. What is unclear right now is how we will use our phones to purchase goods and services next year or five years from now.  Our continued hope is the conversation revolves around consumer convenience, utility and value. Unfortunately, in the U.S. and elsewhere, most of the conversation has been about having the wrong technology, transaction fees, finger-pointing and trying to anoint the mobile payment victor before the mobile payment game has even really started.

Are We Setting Our Goals Too Low on Mobile Payments?
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Nov 2, 2012
Over this past year, we have been highlighting the developments in the mobile payments and mobile wallet space. There has been a serious lack of consumer adoption of mobile payment methods in spite of a tremendous amount of initiatives and announcements from major players like Google, Apple, PayPal, Starbucks and Square. As we reiterated in last week's blog post Mobile Payment Wars: Report from the Front Lines, there needs to be more cooperation between the players and more focus on providing value for the mobile consumer. We believe that until a viable solution comes along which provides a payment solution plus additional convenience benefits, the consumer will continue to be satisfied with the traditional payment methods of credit cards, checks or cash.

Can You Ditch Your Regular Wallet For A Mobile Wallet?
By Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism Team, Nov 16, 2012
Have mobile wallet and mobile payment solutions become so widespread that it now possible to leave your wallet or purse at home and just use your mobile phone?

Wrapping Our Heads Around Mobile Payment Stats
By Optism Team, Nov 30, 2012
Over the past month, we have seen a number of interesting announcements and predictions regarding mobile payments. The numbers are both very large and seemingly contradicting.

Happy 20th Birthday to SMS
By Optism Team, Dec 7, 2012
On Tuesday, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first SMS message sent by Neil Papworth of Sema Group who texted “Merry Christmas” to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone over Vodafone's GSM Network. It was a truly momentous occasion as over the past two decades, texting has exploded, evolving into one of the most popular and effective means of marketing.

Big Data: Is it Good or Evil?
By Optism Team, Dec 14, 2012
We all live in a world ruled by data. People are creating large amounts of data and how companies are analyzing all the “big data” has become a hotly debated issue from a privacy and permission perspective. In an interesting viewpoint, Carl Kalapesi analyzes where the privacy lines are being drawn. He focuses not on one side of the debate or another, but instead tries to find the elusive middle ground.

Over the past month, we have seen a number of interesting announcements and predictions regarding mobile payments. The numbers are both very large and seemingly contradicting.

The term “mobile payment” can mean any number of three different types of mobile transactions. It can mean swiping your phone with your NFC chip or QR Code at a point of sale reader. It can mean sending money to friend via your phone as your divvy up the restaurant check. Or it can mean buying a product online through a mobile browser or app and having the goods shipped to your house.  It would make sense to distinguish between these types of transactions, for example defining these transactions as mobile payments, mobile transfers and mobile shopping respectively with all mobile transactions defined as mobile commerce. As we look at global keyword popularity, we can see that the mobile payments and mobile shopping have taken over for mobile commerce as the most popular term. Now that we have some context about the terms, let us look at the mobile transaction numbers.

  

IDC announced that worldwide mobile payments will reach $1 trillion by 2017. This forecast includes all mobile commerce components; payments, shopping and transfer. Meanwhile, Juniper Research said that this number will be $1.3 trillion in 2017 while the Yankee Group said it will be only $366 million by 2016. Obviously, there is not a wide consensus in collective mobile payment forecasts.

eMarketer came out said that US mobile proximity payments will reach $62 billion by 2016. This forecast only includes mobile transactions at the local level using your NFC or QR code apps. Currently, eMarketer says that mobile payments will total $600M for 2012 and $2.1 billion for 2013. We mentioned these numbers in our blog post, Are We Setting Our Goals Too Low on Mobile Payments? Growth in these numbers, we predict, will be on the ability of mobile payment solutions to make our lives easier — not just offer another way to pay for goods.

Square announced that they are processing $10 billion dollars in mobile payments annually in the US. This number is up from an $8B run rate in September, so they are growing by 10% a month or about 200% a year. If the numbers continue to grow they will be processing $30 billion dollars annually by this time next year. Even if its growth slows slightly, one can easily see that Square will be processing well over $100 billion in mobile payments by 2016.  PayPal also announced that they too are processing mobile payment transactions at $10 billion dollar annual clip with their PayPal Here devices. If Square and PayPal are already doing about a billion in a month, then the mobile proximity payment forecast of $2.1 billion for 2013 is already in jeopardy.

No matter what we call mobile payment transactions, everyone's guess is as good as yours. We will continue to research these numbers — looking at both mobile payment statistics and the reasons for the growth.