Convenience Technology Vision Group (CTVG) has released a new Vision Report, “Envisioning the Future of Digital Identity in Convenience Retail,” highlighting the transformative shift from physical to digital credentials and the challenges retailers face in balancing consumer convenience with privacy and security concerns.
The CTVG quarterly virtual meeting on June 13, 2025, was facilitated by Ed Collupy, principal of Collupy System Solutions LLC and featured a presentation from Christina Hulka, executive director at the Secure Technology Alliance, who shared exclusive insights from the organization’s recent Identity and Payments Summit.
This comprehensive discussion examined how the convergence of mobile wallets, payments, and identity is creating both opportunities and challenges for convenience retailers as they navigate the evolving landscape of digital credentials and secure commerce.
Key takeaways in the report include:
- The Future of Payments: The rise of digital credentials is driven by both necessity and opportunity, with fraud concerns reaching critical levels and biometric solutions dominating the identity space. “The convergence of identity and payments, digital identities will be bound to payment credentials for a privacy preserving, secure, and convenient checkout experience both in store and online. And I think that’s the biggest takeaway that I have as I see these themes bubbling around in my world and how things are evolving in the real world. Card holders will expect a simplified user experience. One tap does everything and AI will continue to evolve, and both from a threat and a solution perspective,” said Christina Hulka, executive Director at the Secure Technology Alliance.
- Mobile Driver’s License (MDL) Adoption: Despite early deployment challenges, mobile driver’s licenses offer significant privacy enhancements over traditional IDs by sharing only necessary information for specific transactions. “What is the real advantage as a retailer, as everybody’s having the same challenge that, yes, state comes up with this, but really, how many consumers are trusting and rolling in that? And then the challenge on our side is what technology do we use? What investment do we need? Even a simple thing like training,” shared Abhi Patel, VP information technology at Nouria Energy.
- Payment Systems Evolution, Integration Challenges, and the Need for Standardization: The technology’s broad applicability across multiple industries beyond convenience retail could accelerate implementation through economies of scale. “All I’m hearing is the need to standardize. So we need some standardization to assist the employees at the store level for all this. It’s the same with payments. There are so many different types of payments accepted everywhere now. It’s hard to keep track of it at the site level when you’re hiring somebody off the street,” said Jason Collins, director of IT at Englefield Oil Company.
- Trust and Privacy Concerns: Consumer trust remains a significant barrier, with even the most trusted institutions failing to earn majority confidence regarding digital identity management. “Less than 50% of us trust anybody on this digital identity front,” said Ed Collupy, CTVG advisor/facilitator and principal of Collupy System Solutions LLC.
- Operational Challenges with Major Oil Company Systems: Brand affiliations and legacy systems create constraints, though progress is being made in mobile payment acceptance at fuel dispensers. “We’re branded Shell and Exxon,” noting that such partnerships often limit flexibility in payment systems, said Bill Ridge, VP of technology at Eastern Petroleum Corporation. He continued that the systems are beneficial, as well: “We can use pay at the pump with our phones, you can use Apple Pay, and that’s what the majority of our people want.”
