How Telecom Retailers Can Enable Flexible Store Experiences with Mobile Payment Options

When it comes to mobile payments, there’s no excuse for mobile device retailers not to offer their customers these options. 

The world of commerce has seen an explosion in uptake and demand for mobile and digital payment options over the past few years. The global mobile payment market was valued at US$88.5 billion in 2024 and is forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 38.0% from 2025 to 2030, reports Grand View Research. Overall, the global digital payment market was valued at US$122.32 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to reach US$712 billion by 2033, according to Astute Analytica.

Naturally, given the industry we operate in, the wireless retail sector is far from immune to this demand. Telecom retailers are now fully expected to offer mobile payment and digital wallet options within their stores. Wireless retail locations need to be equipped to provide all the different methods by customers want to pay, from simply tapping a credit card at a wireless terminal to using their digital wallets and preferred payment apps. 

Along with many other benefits, the newly launched iQ Payments solution is an essential component of a mobile-first retail strategy, as it enables stores to take payments anywhere with untethered mobile terminals and sleek card readers. It also offers one-click payment options on the customer’s own device with the integrated Remote Pay cardless solution. 

Let’s dig deeper into each of these aspects of iQ Payments and the benefits they offer. 

In-Store Mobile Enablement 

The key to taking payments in a mobile-first store is having the right hardware, supported by the right technology. With a choice of sleek, wireless payment terminals and the compact, budget-friendly iQ Reader, the flexible hardware options that come with iQ Payments allow you to make a transaction anywhere in the store. 

Margeaux Girardin, Payments Product Manager at iQmetrix, explained, ​“We wanted to focus on untethering a sales rep from behind a desk. That is largely because the nature of the customer’s buying experience in a wireless store is not one where they are lining up at a checkout counter and ringing through a simple purchase like at a grocery store. They are buying a very high-touch, complex device, along with a rate plan and promotions and accessories and all the add-ons that help the customers run their lives. This means the sales reps need to have a more consultative approach, and a mobile-first payment experience allows them to be more of a consultant on the floor.” 

With the puck-style iQ Reader, the sales associate doesn’t even need to grab the wireless payment terminal. The lightweight card reader is light enough to affix to the tablet that the sales associate is using on the store floor, with a case that holds a tablet on the front and the reader on the back. The sales associate could simply lift the tablet to give the customer access to tap their physical or digital credit card on the reader. 

Cardless Remote Pay Solutions 

Remote Pay is an iQmetrix solution that turns the customer’s mobile device into a payment terminal, by sending them a one-click payment link via text or email. This enables the customer to pay how they choose, whether through inputting credit card details or using a digital wallet such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. 

This solution has been on offer from iQmetrix for several years, but is getting a fresh lease on life with the new iQ Payments solution. Originally created as a response to the contactless payment technologies required during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for Remote Pay has not gone away — the use case has simply evolved. Clients who adopted it during the pandemic have since realized that even though touchless payments are less essential today, Remote Pay is an incredibly useful way to reduce their dependency on, and capital investment in, payment hardware. It also means that there are no waits for making the transaction if the store’s payment terminals are already in use. 

Girardin explained, ​“For some clients, they might have previously paid for three to five terminals per location, which are very expensive — at least the old, tethered terminals — and they now only need maybe one wireless terminal and one card reader. The rest of the transactions can be done at any time via Remote Pay, which doesn’t rely on a payment terminal, or even for the customer or their card to be present.” 

One significant improvement in Remote Pay on the new iQ Payments platform is that, rather than having to onboard with a third-party payment provider, Remote Pay is now operated entirely through iQmetrix as a single vendor. This means there is now a single point of contact for onboarding, support, expertise, and data, and you can say goodbye to any back-and-forth between your team, the processor, and the bank. This also results in quick resolution of any payments-related issues through one point of contact, and it creates a single source of truth for reporting. All Remote Pay data is in one place, providing insights into transactions and payments so you can easily reconcile payments, review chargeback documents, and respond quickly to disputes with chargeback handling. 

Girardin added, ​“We’ve found that our clients ask for Remote Pay more and more. And for clients who’ve had it from the beginning, they are seeing an increasing percentage of transactions are going through Remote Pay. Now that the technology has been rebuilt on the new iQ Payments platform — by the same team who innovated Remote Pay several years ago — it’s going to be even better.” 

Another great benefit of Remote Pay is that it now has an inherent security feature that enables more control of which transactions go through, including the ability to block high-risk transactions. The built-in 3DS2 technology monitors and flags credit cards and payments that may be deemed higher risk, which is important for what is essentially an online transaction. 

Girardin said, ​“We had clients who love Remote Pay asking what we could do to protect them against customers claiming they didn’t make a payment, which resulted in chargebacks. In our exploration of fraud-mitigation strategies, 3DS2 kept coming up as the gold standard. Now this is built into Remote Pay in iQ Payments, right out of the box.” 

Creating Great Customer Experiences 

With the combination of mobile-enabled hardware and Remote Pay solutions, wireless retailers can offer their customers the transaction experience of their choice — in turn creating customer loyalty and repeat business. 

It’s all part of a wider iQ Payments solution suite that takes your telecom retail transactions and reporting to the next level, which in turn is part of the next generation of iQmetrix retail technology. Watch this space for much more information on this to come! 

Want to learn more about the new iQ Payments solution suite? 

Interested in learning specifically about Remote Pay?