http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7q1jx8mYi8&feature=player_embedded
After watching this video I know a few things.
- It’s going to be a while before anybody implements a smoother shopping experience
- It’s not going to look like this
- PayPal won’t be the ones to do it
The vision presented by PayPal of what payment solutions will look like creates more problems than it solves.
In their “PayPal Across the Purchase Process” graphic they show the key value proposition of each stage is a buzz word or gimmick.
- Geo-targeted mobile advertising
- Barcode scanning
- Real-time inventory availability
- Mobile and point-of-sale payments
- Virtual Wallet
It’s absurd to think that the future of payments will involve consumers adopting five different new technologies and behaviours, none of which have even yet been proven in the market.
Remember also, that PayPal isn’t relevant in the physical payment world at all. So the fact that their relevance is going to depend on those technologies isn’t a good sign.
As I’ve written on the blog before quoting Steve Jobs, this reads like the case of engineers working backwards from the technology to the customer experience. Which is the wrong way of doing it.
What makes me more upset is that PayPal never describes a simple, consumer focused buying experience. The solution presented is more about how PayPal could fit into the process. The video presents the benefits to PayPal rather than what’s best for the consumer.
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