Think self-scanning is the summit of supermarket gizmos? Think again. -- "From self-scan checkouts at grocery stores to electronic information kiosks at retail chains, businesses are making technology an ever more central part of the overall shopping experience. IBM, which is investing heavily in shopping computerization, reports that shoppers from different countries across the board are increasingly open to using new in-store technologies. The company says that super-shoppers have become empowered by their ability to access data online, and this ability translates into an extremely knowledgeable consumer base, with specific customer-service needs."
There's a huge upside opportunity for digital payment innovation in America. As of December 2017, Juniper Research estimates that only 9 percent of the total payment cards in circulation within the U.S. market was contactless-enabled -- this translates into just over 100 million cards. While this is a significant installed base -- around 13 percent of total chip cards issued in the U.S. market -- Juniper estimates that only 5.5 percent of the cards were actually used to make contactless offline point-of-sale purchases in 2017. This translates into about 6 million contactless cards used for payments. That's relatively low in comparison with more advanced markets such as Canada (60 million) and the UK (108 million). Contactless Payment Market Development Juniper Research forecasts that driven by payment cards and mobile wallets, in-store contactless payments will reach $2 trillion by 2020 -- that represents 15 percent of the total point of sale transactions. Furthermore