Chase Pay has it sights set on on-the-move customers in its latest partnerships with HMSHost, a food and beverage provider for travel venues, and Parkmobile, an application that enables users to pay for parking on their mobile devices.

The partnerships will expand the reach of Chase Pay dramatically, and the payments platform will be sure to keep an eye on whether the platform’s widened accessibility will result in an appreciable uptick in organic usage. Both partnerships will be implemented over the course of the year.

“We are focused on building partnerships with merchants we know customers use the most, and we believe through partnership we can encourage organic uptake, increase product awareness, and deliver a strong customer experience that goes beyond just payment,” said Dina DeMerell, chief marketing officer at Chase Pay.

New partnerships
HMSHost operates nearly 2,000 restaurant locations in more than 80 North American airports and 99 motorway service centers, and partners with more than 300 traveler-preferred brands such as California Pizza Kitchen, Lorena Garcia Tapas y Cocina, and Starbucks.

Starting in Q2, HMSHost locations will begin securely processing transactions on Chase’s closed-loop ChaseNet platform, establishing a point-to-point encrypted solution. The Chase Pay system will add another layer of security by tokenizing every HMSHost transaction so that cardholders’ account numbers are never shared.

Chase’s other new partner, Parkmobile, allows users to pay for parking spots in cities across the country, reserve parking at concert venues and arenas and sign up for multiple vehicle accounts.

Through its partnership with Chase Pay, Parkmobile customers will soon be able to use the platform for on-demand and prepaid parking on the street, at garages, airports and events across the United States.

Mobile payments
Partnerships seem to be the primary (and perhaps the necessary) avenue by which mobile payments platforms are expanding their users bases. The widespread adoption of the tactic is no surprise, since the still-nascent sector has already proved to be fiercely competitive, no doubt due to the big players (Chase, Samsung, Apple) behind the technology.

Amazon recently revealed that Thirty-two percent of the 33 million customers who use Amazon Payments did so through a mobile device, a surprising level of uptake for one of Amazon’s lesser-known services (see story).

And a recent report from Forrester claimed that mobile payments volume in the U.S. is expected to total $112 billion in 2016 and grow at a 20 percent compound annual growth rate until it reaches $282 billion by 2021 (see story).

“Mobile payments still only represent a fraction of U.S. spending and we expect that the category and options available will grow tremendously over the next few years,” Ms. DeMerell said. “The industry and merchants will need to understand that customers may use a variety of mobile payment solutions, not just one, and will seek out solutions that best meet their needs.

“More than half of U.S. households already have a relationship with Chase. With Chase Pay, we hope to help smooth the transition to mobile for our customers, delivering a payment solution that they can trust and rewards tied to their daily spending.”