Monetization Playbook #60–Eating Customer Complexity–Payments

Eating Customer Payments Complexity

The coffee queue at Caffe Nero confirms that I may be one of only a few who haven't yet embedded payments into their phones.

Apple keep on asking me–and I fervently resist. 

However, the mobile-first generation does not share these reservations.

While cash is not yet a dirty word, the concept of carrying 'loadsa money’ in a wallet–a real one, not digital or crypto–is at best, alien to many GenZ and Millennials.

My parents railed against the use of credit cards.

"Only buy what you can afford, Gary."

And as for cheques. My father had a clear first principled view.

"Why would I give someone a piece of paper that says I have money when I can give them the actual cash in the first place!"

So how did we get here?

Friction.

Customer friction always provides business opportunities.

The carrying of cash or card is not difficult. Nevertheless, the disruption of their single-use nature by a bundled multi-use service was inevitable.

Enter the mobile phone–a bundle of joy.

No queueing for cash.
No juggling credit cards.
No annual replacement of frayed wallets.
Just frictionless payments.

As the saying goes— to increase monetization, eat your customer's complexity.