The Executive Interview Series provides readers with exclusive insights from movers and shakers in the payments industry. The payments industry is under continuous transformation. This series offers diverse perspectives on everything from strategy to payments technology and the industry’s future.
This interview between TSG’s Morgan Murphy and Emily Foshee, Vice President Core Products & Delivery at Discover® Global Network, discusses adoption of SoftPOS technology, its benefits for merchants and consumers, and how Discover supports the merchant acquiring community with innovative payment solutions.
Bio: Emily Foshee is currently the Vice President Core Products & Delivery at Discover® Global Network and has been employed at the organization since February 2014. Prior to this role, Emily held the position of Director Data Transactions and Commerce Products, Senior Manager, Data and Commerce Products, and Product Manager Loyalty in the same company. Before joining Discover Global Network, Emily worked at BP from March 2005 to February 2014 in various roles such as BP Driver Rewards Loyalty Product Manager, Offer Development Manager, and Payment Systems Project Manager. Emily graduated from Denison University in 2003 with a BA in English Literature and later earned their Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Organizational Leadership from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
Q. Morgan M.
How are Discover cardholders responding to contactless payments?
A. Emily F.
We understand that our cardholders pay how and where they want and are quickly adopting contactless payments. After launching with Discover card, we continued to see strong performance with contactless transactions increasing 53%+ and sales growing 67%+ YOY from 2022 to 2023 globally1.
Q. Morgan M.
What are some of the most exciting ways you have seen SoftPOS transform payment experiences?
A. Emily F.
It adds value for a wide range of use case for merchants of all sizes. For example, store pickup, delivery, and home care services where the transaction is converted to card present, sometimes with an upsell opportunity. Other examples would be restaurant transactions that take place at the table, and transit transactions that take place on board.
Q. Morgan M.
Does SoftPOS enhance the customization of the retail experience?
A. Emily F.
It does, and we found that merchants want to enhance their customization capabilities. This is especially compelling to luxury retailers who use this type of payment acceptance to create a personalized payment experience for their customers. Customers are able to pay where the merchandise is located, resulting in faster service and less time for a customer to change their purchase decision. We found that 56% of merchants find value in the ability to deliver a more personalized sales experience with potential to upsell2. The product flexibility enhances the merchant offering to the end customer.
Q. Morgan M.
What are some of the fundamental ways Discover Tap on Mobile supports large enterprise payment systems?
A. Emily F.
The merchants benefit from our secure and scalable solutions that are PIN supported and uses the same secure EMV®3 specifications as traditional POS terminals. This includes an end-to-end encryption and tokenization to meet the needs of merchants of all sizes. SoftPOS allows merchants to easily add terminals to their checkout experience by enabling their mobile phone as a POS terminal.
SoftPOS allows the merchant to speed up the checkout process and reduce long wait times for their customer. In a recent study commissioned by Discover Global Network, we found 58% of consumers are likely to complete a purchase because of their ability to skip the line and pay directly with a sales assistant’s mobile device2.
Q. Morgan M.
Have you found that merchants are eager to adopt SoftPOS?
A. Emily F.
Yes, merchants are eager to adopt SoftPOS technology like Tap on Mobile. Our research found that 92% of merchants anticipate Tap on Mobile will provide value for their organization over the next three years1. In response to this, we crafted a suite of materials to promote SoftPOS awareness to deepen expertise. Materials include participant spotlights and testimonial videos designed to showcase our collaborative approach. Additionally, product overview and tutorial videos found here.
Q. Morgan M.
How does Discover Global Network support the merchant acquiring community with SoftPOS adoption?
A. Emily F.
One key way we support the acquiring community is our end-to-end product implementation process. It covers everything from onboarding to product certification. Acquirers have access to a certified software development kit and can work with Discover-certified solution providers who have already implemented the Discover Tap on Mobile solution. This kind of onboarding support is cost-effective and can really help save implementation time.
Q. Morgan M.
What factors did Discover consider while developing the Tap on Mobile software development kit (SDK)?
A. Emily F.
When Discover Global Network developed our SDK, we took a customer centric approach to minimize the resources and effort to integrate Tap on Mobile. The SDK was designed so users would not be required to create their own solution allowing for a faster to market experience. It does not require an external PIN pad or card reader (dongle) by using the existing contactless infrastructure. The issuer and cardholder experience no changes all while incorporating a new terminal type. This approach reduces certification overhead and development expense.
Q. Morgan M.
How does Discover Global Network work to meet the expectations of SoftPOS developers?
A. Emily F.
Developers expect there to be no specialized hardware required and an easy distribution of updates through apps when working with SoftPOS technology. Additionally, there are no ties to specific phones or tablets required.
Q. Morgan M.
How do you anticipate SoftPOS evolving and continuing to enhancing the payment experience of the future?
A. Emily F.
This technology was originally expected to convert small and micro merchants from cash-only, but the SoftPOS application is a future-readied solution built for evolving customer and merchant expectations. So, we’ve seen that this isn’t just being leveraged by the small and micro-merchants. Large scale and high-end merchants are implementing this technology in retail and restaurant settings to help reduce long-lines and speed up the check-out process. So yes, we will continue to evaluate purchasing trends to evolve use cases in the ever-evolving payments market.
- Internal DFS data ↩︎
- 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence Global Payments Survey, commissioned by Discover Global Network, Q1 2024 ↩︎
- EMV® is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries and an unregistered trademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC. ↩︎