Short Term

First and foremost, from a customer’s perspective, mobile payment will presumably result in a greater convenience, in terms of portability, speed of use and time. Indeed, MP will not only eradicate the inconvenience of having to carry numerous cards, but more importantly the burden of having to carry or seek for change and coins. This portability aspect will be particularly beneficial for small amount purchases such as bus fares and vending machines, given the dearth of a ‘’fee less’’ cash machines (i.e RBC in a specific location) and the substantial amount charged by automated teller machines, which is ironically oftentimes greater than the change needed.  (Chen, Yazdanifard, 2015) Besides, the transactions via mobile devices will induce the waiting in line time to nearly vanish, or at least be reduced significantly. ‘’According to some estimates, this method of payment can be 15 seconds to 30 seconds faster than swiping and signing a traditional card or entering the PIN’’. (Hayashi, 2015) On the other hand, when contrasted with traditional payme in order for the transaction to be approved, at the merchant’s POS, thereby adding an extra security layer. In addition, a consensus among experts foresee that mobile payment applications are likely to facilitate personal financial management, since individuals can be notified when an arbitrary threshold is attained, in a specific category of spending (i.e restaurant). (Hayashi, 2015) By providing such features, MP apps can thus help people monitor their spending pattern more easily and consequently allow them to comply with a given budget.

Notwithstanding, MP akin to any novel payment method also involves some disadvantages, that seemingly impedes on the adoption process by the vast majority. As it was aforementioned, in lieu of solely supporting one technology, a Mobile payment can be carried out through RFID, NFC, 2D barcodes and WAP. At a first sight, the versatility of MP should be perceived as a key benefit, nonetheless if we delve further, it turns out to be a potential drawback. In fact, as of today, although NFC is somewhat more prevalent, influential merchants have not yet agreed users will have to upgrade to a new one, since not all of them support this technology. It’s worthwhile to bear in mind that this must not be taken as initial cash outlay, given that individuals are likely to be enticed by several advantages offered by smart phones, (prior the purchase) rather than just this one.  (Hayashi, 2015)  Lastly, the security facet of MP seem to be a double-edged sword. In one way, as discussed above, it

Likewise, in regards of the merchant’s position, the potential security flaws are extremely relevant. In fact, if we consider the merchant terminals (POS) used for mobile payment, researchers have shown that hacker attacks can be executed through unsophisticated malware often available in the black market. (Taylor, 2016)  Besides, while mobile payments enhance the shopping experience of legitimate customers, it can also trigger an unusual type of theft, because of the autonomy of scanning and ‘’mime-payment’’, which is not widespread yet.

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