What do payments have to do with mobility services? What good does launching a payment card as part of your mobility app do? We’re glad you asked. You’d be surprised how much business potential goes untapped when a mobility provider uses an external payment service on their apps.
Launching your own card becomes especially compelling when you offer multiple modes of transportation – bikes, public transport, scooters, rental cars – or offerings from many providers under one end-customer facing service. Because the more your customers can use the card, the more value you can create.
In this article, we will share how you can capture your share of that value. We will share our insights on the typical challenges that mobility providers face regarding payments. Then, we introduce four major business benefits that you can get by launching your own payment card and embedding it into your app.
By reading this article, you’ll learn:
- Why payment cards matter in the mobility sector
- How payment cards can help solve the problems that mobility companies are facing
- The benefits of launching a payment card as part of your mobility app
What is the role of payment cards in the mobility industry?
In the mobility sector, each individual transaction typically has a small value – often a couple of euros. And since each transaction has a cost, using a payment service provider (PSP) is expensive and can really hurt the margins for mobility services. Providing an own card with top-ups is a more economical option.
Own payment cards can also enable mobility companies to get valuable insights into their customers’ purchasing behaviour. As an outcome of that data, they can also improve their customers’ user experience. This applies to any company that helps people travel from point A to B.
Cards are particularly interesting for mobility service providers that combine many offerings or several mobility operators into one app. A mobility company might have contracts with several mobility providers, combining public transport, Uber, e-bikes, scooters, and other modes of transportation under the same solution.
Many mobility companies have their own service apps but they don’t have a payment card embedded into them. This means that when your customers are buying their transportation tickets, they will leave the app and use an external authentication system for the payments.
This comes with at least two problems.
The main challenges for mobility companies when it comes to payments
When there’s no card on the app, users have to leave it to pay for the services. And when the user flow is going out of the mobility service app, you get no reporting on your customers’ buying behaviour.
This means that you will not know how much money the users are spending, when, or where. In other words, you will have no idea what your customers are actually doing.
Without the data, there are no insights. And without insights, it will be very difficult for you to negotiate with other mobility service operators. This might hinder your ability to expand your portfolio with new vehicles or providers.
Another major challenge concerns the user experience. Using an external payment card adds steps into the buying process. For example, an external SCA (Secure Customer Authentication) requires bank details or fingerprints. This makes your customers’ purchasing experience very lengthy and time-consuming.
Four reasons to launch a mobility payment card
Launching your own payment card instead of using an external one is the way for mobility companies to tackle those challenges. Next, we’ll outline four key reasons why and how you’ll benefit from launching a payment card as part of your mobility service.
1) Get that valuable customer data and grow your business
Own card is the more economical option compared to PSPs. It’s better for your margins when you can avoid fees on small-value transactions. On top of this, you’ll get some invaluable data!
When your customers don’t have to leave your app to buy their tickets, you’ll be able to get valuable insights into their transactions. All the reporting on their buying behaviour is yours.
This enables you to build a better business case for your product or service category. With the data and insights, you can understand how much and how often your customers use certain services within the app. This enables you to target each customer segment in a very detailed manner.
Then, you can not only expand your services but also do it with the right providers. When you can present relevant data on your customers’ behaviour, it’s easier to convince new service providers to work with you.
2) Create a seamless user experience
In-app payments can have a significant impact on your customers’ user experience. Using mobility apps is easier when they can also pay in the same app instead of having to switch to an external one.
When you have a mobility card tied into your service app, your customers don’t have to hassle with fingerprints, bank details, or other types of manual authentication. They can just select the ride they want, confirm the purchase, and pay for it – and they’re ready to go.
3) Get more revenue with payment cards
A payment card can become an important source of revenue for your business! The most common way to generate revenue is from customer subscriptions payments and single rides without a subscription.
You can also get money back through interchange fees from card schemes. This is how it works:
When customers make purchases on e-commerce sites, the card issuer gets money back from the card schemes, like Visa or Mastercard. The amount depends on the type of card that the customer uses. Typically it’s between 0.05 to 0.3 percent of the purchase amount.
Many card processors keep the interchange fees that come from the card schemes. But when you launch your payment card with Enfuce, you’ll get all this money back from your customers’ purchases.
4) Loyalty programs help you create even more value
This is where the real benefit comes in! When companies have a loyalty program along with a mobility card, they can productise their offering and incentivise their customers to use the card even more. This of course means you get more money back in interchange fees.
Our loyalty module supports all this. You can split customers into different segments. Each segment can have different loyalty modules attached to them. Then, you can calculate bonuses in various ways. For example, you can give points per type of transaction or for specific actions like taking a ride during certain hours of the day, and so on.
Your loyalty program can also include other benefits like birthday vouchers, booking a hotel with bonus points, calling a taxi in advance for cheaper, audiobook service premium for free, discounts and special offers, just to name a few.
This is where you can really create value for customers! When the purchasing volumes are high, you don’t really end up paying anything back to the card schemes. That’s because the interchange fees you get are more than what you pay to the schemes.
Fulfil your product vision by launching a payment card with Enfuce
With Enfuce, you can launch your own mobility payment card in just eight weeks. We’ll help you fulfil your vision of providing an exceptional mobility offering and user experience to your customers.
This is possible with the best range of features and loyalty program modules. With us, you can get a payment card solution tailored to your customers’ needs, fast time to market, and the best long-term cost-efficiency.
The world of payments might feel like a lot to digest. There’s compliance, fraud management, and much more. But you need not worry about any of it, nor the technical implementation. Let us handle all that. So you can focus on your business.
Read more about Card as a Service for mobility companies, and grow your business with a payment card.
And if you have more questions about payments, do not hesitate to contact us!
