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Over the past month, while trying to purchase a variety of obscure items (security nuts and marine VHF cable connectors) I experienced for the first time the outdated nature of many small businesses on the internet.
While the likes of Amazon and The Source have an extensive online presence, where browsing and purchasing their products is a breeze, there are thousands of other, mainly smaller businesses that have little to no online presence. With the expiry of my U-pass in May I have begun to use my Presto card for the first time since it’s launch. Thankfully, while there are a few minor issues I have found with Presto, I have only one major concern: payment options.
When I went to register and setup my Presto card I was presented with three different payment option: manual top-up, Monthly Pass, and Autoload, none of which seemed to my liking. US consumers alone purchased $38.8 billion worth of goods using their mobile devices in 2013, a number which is only expected to rise. While consumers are eager to make payments with their mobile devices few of these purchases were processed through traditional payment terminals due to the lack of compatible infrastructure.
This lack of support is not because companies are uninterested. With profits growing every year everyone wants to get in on the huge potential of this market.