The news: Mastercard launched Mastercard Wallet Services, a software kit for creating digital wallets on both iOS and Android devices, per a press release.

This kit should help more retailers and merchants take advantage of NFC tech in their own apps.

How we got here: Apple opened its closed garden around NFC technology to resolve antitrust investigations from EU and US regulators in 2024. Since then, few  mobile wallet competitors have enabled tap-to-pay capabilities.

Why this matters: Expanding tap-to-pay functionality could deepen the stickiness for alternative digital wallets trying to more closely link loyalty rewards and transactions in one app. 

Tap to pay is already table stakes for retailers: 56% of US shoppers used it for their last in-store purchase—up more than 20 percentage points from 2022, per a PYMNTS Intelligence report.

Zoom out: We predicted that mobile wallets would adopt NFC tech capabilities last year—but the widespread adoption rate didn’t materialize. Even major retailers with successful mobile wallets, like Starbucks, have yet to onboard NFC. 

This suggests that the ecosystem plays of Apple and Google may be too powerful for competitors to break current consumer behavior.

Recommendations for mobile wallets: To win over consumers, alternative wallets need to emphasize rewards or payment flexibility that other incumbent wallets don’t offer. 

However, Apple and Google Wallet have already built out broad non-payments capabilities to make their apps even stickier, which will likely make it even more difficult for consumers to make the switch. For retailers, it may actually introduce more friction to incentivize using a different wallet for every shop a customer visits.

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