Small Merchant Adoption of Mobile Credit Card Readers at 40%

With the possible exception of the Starbucks mobile payment system in the end user segment, retailer use of mobile credit card readers connected to smartphones and tablets are the standout winners in the emerging mobile payments business.

In fact, some 40 percent of small and mid-sized businesses surveyed by BIA/Kelsey said they accept payments at the point of sale with a mobile credit card reader attached to a smartphone or tablet.

About 16 percent of surveyed retailers said they were planning to add this capability in the next 12 months, according to BIA/Kelsey. 

In fact, such payments already eclipse the amount of contactless payment activity by quite some measure. 

Although mobile POS proximity payments made up just 0.01 percent of total retail POS volume in 2012, mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) will help propel mobile payments to $5.4 billion by 2018.