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CoverStory

Mastercard casts wider merchant net

Mastercard is embarking on an ambitious plan to enable
electronic payment acceptance among 40 million micro and
small merchants worldwide by 2020. If it succeeds, the move
could open new vertical market opportunities for ISOs and MLSs
in the United States and abroad. The plan, revealed in June
2017, expands upon a program the company launched in 2016
to promote universal access to financial services, worldwide, by
2020.

Financial inclusion initiatives abound. Initiatives to date,
however, have focused on providing unbanked households
with financial tools and transaction accounts, most of which are
accessed using mobile devices. Yet many of the small businesses
where these households regularly shop can't accept mobile
and/or other types of electronic payments. Mastercard aims to
change that, and to do so in short order.

"Real financial inclusion happens when people can use their new
financial accounts to do what many of us take for granted," said
Ajay Banga, Mastercard President and CEO. "Helping micro and
small merchants connect to electronic payments will accelerate
adoption and usage of new financial tools for the unbanked and
will have a true impact on people's daily lives."

Work One scheme now being tested in the United Kingdom with
acquirer Worldpay aims to allow small merchants to accept
contactless payments using any mobile phone without the need
for peripheral devices.
Smarter.

growing demand for mobile order-ahead and payment
options. Consumer expectations on this front have been
Not shaped by on-demand ride-sharing services like Uber
and Lyft and have been bleeding over into verticals like
quick service restaurants (QSRs), Pucci noted. "That's
the sweet spot for mobile order and pay," he said. This
Harder. hasn't been lost on payments disruptor Square Inc.,
which in March, purchased OrderAhead, a website
and mobile app that supports advanced ordering and
payment for restaurant take-out orders.

The earliest QSR adopters have been pizza chains. Mobile
Order and Pay Ahead: a New Sales Channel for Restaurants
and Merchants, a Mercator report authored by Pucci,
SALES AGENTS APPLY AT
identifies several notable successes: two leading chains
cenpos.com/sales – Papa John's and Pizza Hut – were among them. Each
reported that one third of sales in 2016 were mobile-
ahead orders.

Starbucks, another checkout trend setter, reported in
2016 that 30 percent of all in-store purchases were being
careers@cenpos.com • 305.630.7960 completed with mobile devices, and 20 percent of sales
at its busiest stores during peak hours were mobile
order-ahead transactions. Against this backdrop, three
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