Despite its initial backing by retail powerhouses including Walmart, Target and Best Buy, the CurrentC mobile payments platform has run out of juice. A beta test in Columbus, Ohio will end on June 28.
Launched by the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) in 2014 amid high hopes of providing an alternative to the major credit card companies, the CurrentC app never gained traction with consumers. In fact, the app hardly had a chance to test the market. One problem was that the various MCX members slowed development by seeking to load the app with multiple features, such as retailer-specific loyalty programs, according to Fortune.
The delays opened the door for other powerful players to leap into the payments space with their own mobile solutions, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay. Even MCX founder Walmart chose to go solo, introducing Walmart Pay in December 2015.
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A chicken-and-egg style challenge for all mobile payments players has been that although consumer awareness of these options is on the rise, actual adoption has been slow. Only 18% of North Americans used their mobile phones to make a payment at least once a week, according to a 2015 survey from Accenture.
In a session on payments disruption at the Retail TouchPoints Retail Innovation Conference in May, Vib Prasad, SVP Innovation at MasterCard, identified a key challenge: In general, shoppers are satisfied with their current payment options. “Payments are not broken, but there needs to be added benefits to have customers say ‘This is better,'” he said. “We need to get them to reject the old experience, which was seemingly O.K. For Millennials, payment should be fast and easy.”
While the Columbus beta test, which began in September 2015, eventually expanded to include outlets from 150 stores, including Wendy’s, CVS and ExxonMobil, there appear to be no plans to revive the CurrentC program after the lights go off on June 28.
