{"id":123,"date":"2019-06-09T16:57:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T16:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=123"},"modified":"2019-06-09T16:57:41","modified_gmt":"2019-06-09T16:57:41","slug":"publix-rolling-out-mobile-pay-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/06\/09\/publix-rolling-out-mobile-pay-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Publix rolling out mobile pay system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Publix Super Markets Inc. is rolling out a new mobile payment system through its smartphone app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy integrating a mobile pay solution within the Publix app, we can offer a way for our customers to plan, shop, save and pay with ease,\u201d Publix spokesman Brian West said in an email to The Ledger. \u201cMobile payment through the Publix app on iOS (Apple devices) is currently being rolled out in phases throughout the company. Additionally, we plan to expand this service to Android devices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West declined to provide information on a timeline for rolling out mobile payments to all its 1,218 supermarkets, including 800 stores in Florida. Publix has had an Apple Pay pilot program for mobile pay \u201cin a handful of our (14) Virginia locations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile pay allows customers to pay their grocery bills simply by installing an app on a smartphone and waving it by the scanner at checkout. The Publix app has long had a standard payment feature linked to a credit card that requires manual input from the user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix is holding other information about the mobile pay program close to the vest. West declined The Ledger\u2019s request for an interview and did not follow up on other emails seeking additional information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company responded after some websites reported last week that Publix would roll out Apple Pay at all its supermarkets \u201cwithin the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They cited a tweet on the company\u2019s Twitter account from a person identified only as \u201cMonique.\u201d A subsequent Twitter post said that information was incorrect, and West in his email apologized for a \u201cmiscommunication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the timeline, Publix is racing from behind in the growing use of mobile app payment systems worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPublix is playing catch up,\u201d said Larry Ross, a retired business professor at Florida Southern College and an authority on digital marketing. \u201cWith 50% of retailers in 2017 already accepting Apple Pay, it would seem that Publix is not an early adopter of this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Livingston, a supermarket industry consultant based in Hawaii, agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time you go into a drug store, you see (mobile pay),\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why Publix hasn\u2019t done it earlier, but it makes so much business sense to have it. You better have a payment app if you want to do business today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walmart, the largest U.S. grocery chain, introduced its mobile payment system, Walmart Pay, in December 2015 for Apple and Android devices, according to a Fortune magazine article at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a 2018 report from global management consultant McKinsey & Company, mobile apps accounted for 31% of the $3.1 trillion in worldwide digital commerce. It projected that would more than double by 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple Pay had an estimated 252 million users worldwide, according to an Aug. 9 article on the website macrumors.com, which follows the company. It quoted Apple CEO Tim Cook in an earnings report that transactions totaled nearly $1 billion in its third quarter ending June 30, 2018, triple the amount from a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Apple Pay is not even the most popular mobile payment app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cApple Pay is only No. 4 out of the top five worldwide mobile pay systems,\u201d Ross said. \u201cWechat Pay, Alipay (both Chinese) and Paypal rack up more transactions than Apple Pay on a global basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While mobile pay is ubiquitous in many retail sectors, it\u2019s not that common in the supermarket industry, said Jon Springer, executive editor of Grocery Business, an industry publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kroger Co., the second-largest U.S. grocery store chain, just recently introduced its mobile payment system, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the company website, Kroger Pay is currently available in only nine major urban markets, such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas and Nashville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think a lot of retailers are interested in rolling this out because it\u2019s more convenient,\u201d Springer said. \u201cThe credit card and touchpad is yesterday\u2019s technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile pay offers an additional advantage to the retailer by giving the company access to each customer\u2019s demographics and other social media information \u2014 the same data already collected by giants such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon \u2014 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a company like Publix, that would be valuable,\u201d Springer said. \u201cIt also creates another point of stickiness between the customer and the retailer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That stickiness can reinforce customer loyalty to a particular retailer, a key Publix strategy, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile pay is poised for expansion because it appeals to the Millennial, Gen X and Gen Z generations that are more comfortable with and desire to use digital technology, Ross said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtually 100% of the generation younger than Baby Boomers own mobile phones, he said, while ownership in that older generation is stuck at 80%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDemographics drive adoption rates,\u201d Ross said. \u201cMobile payment follows the same demographic in North America with Gen Z most likely to use it, followed by Millennials, then Gen X and lastly the boomers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows older consumers are slow to adopt because they feel it\u2019s easier to use a credit card, do not trust mobile pay as secure or prefer to use cash, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Carmody, founder, and CEO of Trepoint, a digital marketing consultant, called mobile pay \u201cthe future of commerce,\u201d in a Jan. 11, 2018, a column in Inc. magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carmody reported that 1.2 billion people worldwide have access to bank accounts while 5 billion people have mobile phones. Studies also show consumers in China, Europe, and Africa use mobile payment more than the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that mobile payments will be integral to the future of commerce,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd more companies in the United States will need to embrace them in order to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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