You can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink Mobile wallet providers are running into much the same issue In the US theres a smartphone in nearly every hand with 77 percent of Americans owning these devices yet only 24 percent of smartphone owners have ever used a mobile wallet to make a payment Mobile wallet and payment providers arent ready to give up however In fact theyre looking to make the proverbial horse drink by offering the right incentives such as loyalty and rewards programs Throughout the Payments as a Service space major companies are upping their offerings in a bid to encourage mobile wallet and payment use to become the trusted primary payment method The new Payments as a Service Tracker charts the latest efforts of these financial companies and other major headlines and developments Around the Payments as a Service World Mastercard is one company striving to build demand for its mobile payment service and is meeting customers at the gas pump to do so The company recently announced a partnership with Phillips 66 under which the gas station chains loyalty program members can pay for gas using Mastercards Masterpass mobile payment capabilities which will be integrated into the My Phillips 66 app later this year Meanwhile Ant Financial is hoping to drum up greater usage of its mobile payment service Alipay through a partnership with secure commerce technology provider FreedomPay The collaboration enables Chinese tourists to use Alipay services while traveling in North America In another recent team-up JPMorgan Chase and POS provider TouchBistro are collaborating to combat a common restaurant frustration The duo plans to offer customers instant table-side bill payment capabilities eliminating what can be a lengthy or irritating wait for the check Helping Local Businesses Help Each Other With one-stop stores and online shopping dominating much of the retail scene it can be hard to convince consumers to look away from the convenience of mass merchants long enough to notice small local shops they might love Thats a problem at which Nift is chipping away The company offers a gift and reward distribution platform that encourages loyal shoppers from one local business to try out another local store within the network and vice versa The goal is for all participating small businesses to drive non-competing traffic to one another explained founder and CEO Elery Pfeffer Fifty percent of the economy is built out of small businesses and to a large extent they have superior products to any large chain Pfeffer said The problem is people just dont know about them and thats the problem Nift is looking to solve For the full story download the Tracker You Might Also Like Featured News News nift PaaS Paas Tracker Payments as a Service Payments as a Service Tracker shop local small business SMB Tracker Series