• Small Business & the Mirror of the Mobile Consumer
    The small business market is looking more like the mobile consumer marketplace every day. The latest survey results from an AT&T small business study highlighted some interesting mobile stats about small business. It strikes me that many of these same characteristics apply to typical mobile consumers, a large number of whom use Wi-Fi, 4G speeds and apps to save time, among other reasons.
  • Mobile Security &. the Convenience Factor
    The convenience factor may be a hidden, driving force behind mobile commerce. A new study relating to security strikes me as at least one indicator that making something easy for a consumer can trump the associated risks. The Consumer Mobile Insights Study conducted by Harris Interactive found that almost half (48%) of consumers use mobile devices to check their account status or balance and about a third (34%) buy via mobile. This may seem logical knowing what we all know about current mobile behavior from countless studies.
  • Loyalty Programs & the Small, Vending Machine Mobile Payment
    Loyalty programs around small-ticket items may push mobile payments along. Big retailers and brands have long used loyalty programs to entice and reward their best customers. Many reward coupon programs have been integrated into mobile apps so shoppers can see their rewards when most relevant, such as when they're in a particular store. But rewards for loyalty to small-ticket items have hardly been at the top of most loyalty reward program lists.
  • The Tablet vs. Smartphone Shopping Revolution
    Retailers may want to be a bit careful about how to deal with the alleged tablet commerce revolution. Two new studies point to the rise of tablet commerce, with smartphone shopping seemingly fading into the shadows. Some mobile shopping findings in the State of Mobile Benchmark Study by Adobe, based on mobile shopping statistics culled from more than 500 retailers' websites, indicate that the tablet is the mobile purchase device of choice.
  • Travelers Expect More from Mobile on the Road
    What does it take to cause someone to stop using a commerce app? Some people may download an app they heard about from a friend while others may try one they stumbled across in the Google Play or Apple App store. There the apps from well-known brands, like the Starbucks app to pay for coffee or The Home Depot app to buy things for later in-store pickup. Then there is the somewhat unique category of travel, where intended usage can range from researching a trip down the road to booking a flight or hotel on short notice for any number …
  • Mobile Commerce Meets the Mobile Moms
    Many moms and their mobile devices are inseparable. More than half (51%) of smartphone or tablet owning moms use their mobile device as part of their shopping experience either daily or weekly with more than a third (35%) using them daily, based on a new study. Alliance Data surveyed mothers, the majority of whom had one to two children, and found the top reasons that most mothers (56%) use mobile devices to shop is that it's fast/easy, they have no time to go to a mall or store and they can more easily compare prices. As in many studies we …
  • Mobile Enabled Teens & Discretionary Spending
    It looks like teens have money to spend and many will be well-equipped to be spending it via mobile. In its twenty-third, semi-annual "Taking Stock with Teens" study, Piper Jaffray found double-digit increases in spending by teens, who cited improvements in both current fashion spending and intention to spend, across income levels and genders. Key areas of spending were identified as in fashion, which accounts for 39% of teen budgets, beauty and food/restaurants, which are at or near the highest levels since early 2000.
  • The Long, Enduring Life of the QR Code
    In the middle of the lengthy and comprehensive study on emerging digital platforms by Edison Research and Arbitron I came across a stat about QR code scanning. Based on the findings, it looks like those little black-box codes are hardly going away. The researchers found that almost a quarter (21%) of smartphone owners have at least scanned a QR code at least once. While not an earth-shattering percentage, when you consider it as part of the more than a billion smartphones, code scanning has been tried by millions of people.
  • Women Shoppers Want to Shop in Stores, but Open to Mobile Deals While There
    Much of mobile shopping for women appears to involve traveling to a store to shop. In the no-kidding department of research, a new study found that even though more than half (53%) of women have up to five shopping apps on their smartphones, most (76%) prefer to shop for clothes and shoes in a retail store rather than through an app. While hardly a surprise, the same study also contains some insights for how marketers and retailers can engage with female shoppers on location.
  • Mobile Commerce Adoption on the Road
    No matter where you go these days, there's a good chance of coming across examples of mobile commerce. As a frequent traveler, I often see various forms of commerce in action. For example, it's become routine to see consumers holding their phones in front of checkout scanners at Starbucks as they pay for their drinks. What interests me is how people are adapting mobile technologies in sometimes small but innovative ways in the course of what they do.
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