Wallet or Won’t It? Helping Merchants Discover the Value of M-Payments

In this chapter, we explore how merchants can move beyond merely accepting mobile payments to genuinely leveraging them for business value. We begin by identifying the key question: Why should a merchant adopt a mobile-wallet or mobile-payment solution? We then propose a framework that considers three interrelated dimensions: (1) the merchant value proposition (e.g., incremental revenue, cost savings, enhanced customer engagement), (2) the business-model implications (including partnerships, data monetisation, pricing incentives), and (3) the implementation success factors (such as merchant segmentation, consumer readiness, channel integration, and ecosystem alignment). We emphasise that different merchant segments (for instance, big-box retailers versus independent stores) face distinct adoption challenges and incentives. Our analysis shows that simply providing digital-wallet acceptance is not sufficient: merchants must also capture measurable outcomes — for example, higher average transaction size, lower handling of cash, stronger repeat-purchase rates. Furthermore, we highlight that mobile-wallet adoption opens new strategic avenues beyond payment substitution: richer customer data, targeted marketing, loyalty programmes, and operational streamlining. Finally, we draw out practical implications for both merchants and payment-solution providers: merchants should align mobile-payments adoption with a broader digital-commerce strategy, pilot carefully, and ensure integration into the customer journey; providers should reduce onboarding friction, help articulate and measure value to merchants rather than focus solely on technology, and foster ecosystem partnerships. We conclude that while mobile payments hold significant promise for merchants, the real value emerges only when strategic alignment, ecosystem readiness and outcome measurement come together.