The movement to contactless payments may be seen as a near-term goal in the progression what the article refers to as contextual commerce. With both parties to a transaction contributing a technologically enabled identifier, the entire process will be more measurable and therefore, refinable.
“As mobile becomes a sensor I can get purchase intent to when it actually happens, so in real-time I have a sensor at the edge of my network that I could never get in the physical plastic to terminal,” McLaughlin says. [“] It’s the idea that everything on the edge of the network becomes a point of security but also a sensor for monitoring the quality of whether what’s most important is really happening. That becomes incredibly compelling.”
Mercator Advisory Group expects just as ride-sharing providers facilitate the exchange of currency for service based on fulfillment, possession of goods will effectually trigger commercial transactions. Software with the ability to learn and anticipate individual intent will further facilitate the evolution of how transactions are facilitated. We have seen the early stage of contextual commerce with the testing of Amazon Go technologies. The purchase of Whole Foods will likely bring this “checkoutless” technology to a wider population of test environments soon, and serve to familiarize consumers with this progression in commercial interactions.
Overview by Joseph Walent, Associate Director, Customer Interactions Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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