Marketing automation isn’t just for the biggest companies in the world anymore. Thanks to a new crop of local companies, small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have access to the data and the tools to reach their customers in smart, efficient ways while minimizing the hassle on the backend.

During a panel at the 2014 Street Fight Summit, Booker CEO Josh McCarter, Signpost CEO Stuart Wall, and ShopKeep VP of Product Drew Schwartz discussed the latest trends in a panel moderated by StreetFight deputy editor Steven Jacobs.

“We want to help SMBs leverage that data as a means to continue the conversation about personalization and automated marketing and that first step into the email and tracking everything,” Schwartz said, offering up a forthcoming partnership with MailChimp as an example of a way companies can take transaction data about customer behavior and launch a series of automated messages to specific sections of their clientele.

“It’s a unique challenge,” he said, citing the fact that 60 percent of the businesses that ShopKeep works with are first-time businesses. “The way that we try to approach it with SMBs is to make it as seamless as possible for them and for their customers. The way to do that is automatically have things like email receipts so the platform does the work.”

McCarter agreed that there’s a huge opportunity to be the technology platform for SMBs. “When you focus on the service economy like we do, most of these companies are getting left behind when it comes to technology,” he said. “Maybe they have a point of sale system, maybe they have paper, maybe they have a sales system, maybe they have a CRM but for the most part the systems are disconnected. It makes it very difficult.”

Getting SMBs to buy into the technology can be difficult but Wall said that most of the spend came from marketing budgets, which were replenished more quickly than some other categories, so showing an increase in return on investment was essential.

McCarter sees service-based companies that have very perishable inventory as big opportunity. Booker focuses on helping these companies fill their space with repeat customers.

“We’re trying to help them get their customers back,” he said. “It’s sending a targeted email saying ‘you haven’t been for 60 days. Here’s a deal.’”

The panelists all agreed that the market is starting to accelerate.  Mandates around payment security, such as the need to accept EMV payment, are driving security into point-of-sale systems. But the biggest threat, which these new systems pose, is to the offline systems that still dominate the market, said McCarter.

“Point solutions are losing out, especially if you’re not connected,” McCarter said. “It’s even worse if you’re an offline solution. We’re seeing a lot of these install legacy solutions going to the wayside.”

Schwartz saw the same trend. “It’s not about the guy with the pinkie ring trying to sell you a point of sale system any more,” he said, “There’s going to be a move in the next couple years from these old server-client based technologies.”

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For years, tech evangelists have envisioned the dawn of the mobile wallet, and with the recent announcement of Apple Pay, it seems as though mass consumer adoption may finally be upon us. Big-name brands like Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Target and McDonald’s have at long last made the decision to adopt this technology, convinced that Apple has the power to succeed where others — even the mighty Google — have failed.

And they may well be right. After all, as an endless array of pundits have lined up to tell us so over the last month, Apple wasn’t the first company to launch an MP3 player, but they were the first to drive mass adoption with the iPod.

So, how will Apple Pay play out?

The mass adoption of mobile payments — powered by Near Field Communication (NFC) technology — has always been a chicken-and-egg game. Consumers weren’t going to start using a mobile wallet until the majority of stores and restaurants accepted it. And merchants weren’t going to go to the trouble of installing NFC terminals until they saw a mass of consumers adopting mobile wallets. For a mobile wallet to be successful, both sides of the marketplace must be forced into action.

Nobody doubts Apple’s ability to drive consumer action — witness their difficulty even keeping enough iPhone 6 Plus models on the shelves — and that they have achieved buy-in from some significant national retailers, but the true test of Apple Pay’s success lies on Main Street, and that’s where Apple has timed its launch to perfection.

For a mobile wallet to really impact consumer behavior, its acceptance has to be ubiquitous — not just in the Targets and Macy’s of this world, but in our local bodegas, mom-and-pop shops, independent coffee shops and food trucks.

You might think these businesses are a less important slice of the pie than the big-box retailers, but you’d be wrong. At last count, small business accounted for around 54% of all U.S. sales. Without Main Street, Apple Pay would flounder.

And that’s where Apple’s timing comes into play. Traditionally, local merchants have been reluctant to switch from their electronic cash registers and PC-based POS systems, no matter how outdated they may have seemed. New technology was deemed an unnecessary and expensive luxury. That’s all about to change. Unbeknownst to many, small business owners are actually facing a major opportunity (or threat, depending on how you look at it) with the introduction of an entirely different technology, EMV.

Eurocard Mastercard Visa (EMV), already a widespread payment technology throughout the rest of the world, is about to replace the credit card magnetic strip we’re used to in America with a more secure chip. This technology has been around for a while but the U.S. market is now finally about to catch up. Why now? Simply stated: liability.

Starting in late 2015, liability for fraudulent credit card purchases will shift to the merchant, and not the card issuer, if that merchant’s point of sale system is not enabled for EMV payments. This is a huge change that could mean sizable financial repercussions for the average small business owner if they are targeted by fraudsters — and we’re already seeing a lot of merchants looking to upgrade their technology as a result.

So, small businesses find themselves faced with a “perfect storm” as both EMV and Apple Pay now press them to upgrade their point of sale. It’s always been clear that a mobile wallet would need small business adoption to really succeed, and it seems Apple has timed their new product to perfection.

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