The mobile payments space just got a bit more interesting with payment provider payvia buying MMS company Mogreet. While hardly household names, the two companies are well-known within their respective circles. Payvia runs the largest direct carrier connected mobile platform in the U.S., which lets consumers pay for digital goods and services with their mobile phone, with the charges added directly to their phone bill.» 2 Comments
In a study that came out this week, researchers noted the difference in time spent making a purchase by mobile devices compared to by desktops. It turns out that the mobile purchase processes took about half the time. The study, by IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark, looked at shopping behavior around Mother's Day. As you might expect, mobile shopping traffic increased 43% from a year ago, comprising a quarter of the holiday online sales.» 2 Comments
If nothing else is happening relating to mobile payments, the trusty old cash register is under a full-blown assault. Just within the last few days, several major mobile payment providers took aim at the old physical money changing machine. Square launched its new stand -- called, what else: Square Stand - for IPads, the hot checkout device of choice. The device comes with a card reader, of course, and features accessories like kitchen printers, barcode scanners and cash drawers, just like that old cash register.» 6 Comments
Companies continue to find innovative ways to incent and reward mobile commerce behaviors. Visa this week introduced an enhancement to its Visa Offers program, which allows merchants who take Visa credit cards to send targeted rewards to Visa cardholders. After a consumer opts in to receive offers -- another totally separate challenge in itself -- merchants can send targeted offers to Visa cardholders.» 8 Comments
Mobile for commerce keeps popping up in numerous new places. By now, we're getting used to seeing iPads being used as checkout devices at small businesses and mobile payment devices in taxis. Seeing LevelUp used at all the concession stands in the Austin convention center at the recent SXSW was kind of expected, even if not every customer used it. I saw tablet commerce in action again on my flight from Dallas to Las Vegas yesterday.» 0 Comments
When it comes to mobile commerce, small businesses sometimes can benefit from bigger back-end technologies. I recently caught up with the person who leveraged location to show where potential customers could find their products, all in very limited supply. California tequila-maker Tres Agaves Products ran a test in three states to see if they could link mobile consumers to one of their limited-distribution products. Like many small businesses, Tres Agaves wasn't advanced along the mobile commerce chain, especially given that the company is only a few years old.» 0 Comments
Mobile apps relating to loyalty programs may give retailers an edge over showrooming. Deep inside a new study analyzing how brands connect and build loyalty with their customers is an interesting piece of mobile commerce insight. The 2013 Maritz Loyalty Report just out comprised a survey of 6,000 consumers involving loyalty programs at retail, grocery, credit cards, co-brands, travel and hospitality and found the average member is in seven programs. While 9 out of 10 consumers want to receive communications from their loyalty programs, it was the mobile attitude data that caught my eye.» 1 Comments
There obviously are multiple issues around the mobile payments, many dealing with consumer adoption. Last night, I got to participate in a one-hour Twitter chat dealing with some of the specifics relating to opportunities and impediments around forward movement. In on the chat were John Tuders, Senior Vice President, Product & Payments Innovation Executive at Bank of America, and Ken Moy, Group Senior Vice President of Emerging Payments at MasterCard Worldwide, the two entities that organized the chat, moderated by Todd Wasserman, Mashable's business editor.» 4 Comments
Though we wrote about the 10% world of mobile commerce yesterday, it doesn't mean commerce isn't growing in some substantial ways. A new report out today indicates that some retailers are seeing significant year-over-year growth, to the tune of an 85% increase in orders via smartphones. The research is based on 76 million Web visits, 511 million page views and 1.2 million orders totaling $163 million. The index was organized by m-commerce platform provider Branding Brand over a group of 18 major retailers whose commerce sites they developed specifically for mobile commerce.» 0 Comments
Samsung's hot, new Galaxy S4 has a feature that in many ways mirrors the mobile commerce marketplace. It's called Easy Mode and when you switch the phone to it, the device provides large buttons to only those features that might be most useful, such as camera, phone, internet, contacts, phone and calendar. While there are 7 billion mobile phones globally, most of the mobile commerce marketplace seems to be operating in Easy Mode.» 2 Comments
