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CoverStory

Brad Plothow, Vice President of Marketing and Head of
Communications at Womply Inc., said the advantage for
small businesses "is providing the customer experience
Banks seek more mobile-payment converts that can't be matched by a large company."
The race for mobile payments domination became more interesting Personalized, local and convenient services rank high
with the launch of a new ad campaign by Zelle, the person-to-person with consumers. So does trust. And small businesses
mobile payment network backed by the nation's largest banks. far outrank big businesses when it comes to consumer
trust. A 2016 Gallup survey of Americans' trust in 15
The ad blitz, launched in January to coincide with highly-watched "institutions" found only the military ranked higher than
shows like the NFL Playoffs and the Grammys, touts the fact that small businesses. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said
payments with Zelle can be originated from existing mobile banking they trusted small businesses "quite a lot" or "a great deal."
apps. This eliminates the need for consumers to download special Just 8 percent felt similarly about big businesses; 27 percent
apps like nonbank offerings. (Think Venmo.) said the same thing about banks.

Zelle has access to millions of consumers through partnerships with But what big businesses lack in personalized service
over 60 financial institutions, including some of the nation's largest and trustworthiness, they make up for with technology
— like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. prowess. Most large retailers and ecommerce providers
have customer relationship management tools that can
According to its owners, Zelle was used by consumers to make track customer buying habits and preferences, generate
247 million mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments totaling $75 push messaging and manage loyalty programs, for
billion last year. However, while the dollar total represented a 36 example.
percent increase over 2016, it was only a fraction of the $624 billion
in mobile P2P payments made last year, BI Intelligence noted. "Large companies are finding ways to engage customers
as soon as they leave their stores," Plothow said. Texting
receipts to customers' mobile numbers is one example.
"Small businesses don't have that advantage," he added.
Even collecting email addresses during checkout can be
Nelson noted that merchant services providers "are really a challenge for local shop owners, rendering it difficult to
well suited" to this type of mobile platform. "They already remain top of mind once customers leave their stores.
have a book of business and relationships with locals," he
said. "This provides another arrow in their quiver to help "Repeat business is the lifeblood of small business, but
cement relationships and sell additional products and most brick-and-mortar shops don't have good ways to
services, and to attract new customers." keep track of who spends money with them, let alone get
them to come back," said Womply co-founder and CEO
Leveling competition Toby Scammell.

The payoff for small businesses that participate in
programs like these is greater loyalty from locally Womply, a provider of customer engagement and business
conscious consumers. Increasingly, consumers say they analytics software services, boasts that more than 100,000
want to patronize small, independent retailers because brick-and-mortar small businesses use its technology and
it provides a sense of community and belonging, stated data solutions to reach tens of millions of customers. And
Pamela Danziger, President of Unity Marketing, which its partner businesses include dozens of acquirers and
tracks trends in shopping habits of affluent consumers. ISOs. Recently Womply launched Engage, a cloud-based
She said initiatives such as American Express Co.'s software service designed to automate and simplify how
Small Business Saturday, which encourages shopping at businesses keep track of customers and keep them engaged
community-based retailers and other small businesses, with virtually no work on the part of those businesses.
are indicative of this trend. She suggested any small
businesses can potentially benefit from this trend. The process begins as soon as a customer uses a payment
card at the POS. Womply captures the customer's name
"Owners of small retail shops often feel overwhelmed by from the card (all in compliance with card industry
the rapidly changing retail environment, with competition security protocols) and automatically creates a customer
on all sides and most especially from Amazon," Danziger file for that merchant. The file is populated with data about
wrote in a recent blog post. "But small business retailers that transaction, as well as information gleaned from the
have a competitive advantage that none of these bigger, customer's interactions with other Womply clients and
better capitalized and techno-powered retailers have: social media feeds, and is continuously updated.
their personal touch. It is realized not just through the
personal service that specialty retailers offer, but by being
vital members of the local community. This trend will
reshape the retail landscape over the next decade."

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