
Mobile Commerce

There’s a lot of hype surrounding mobile payments, but is it just that? In general, consumers have been slow to embrace the technology. With no definitive leader in the mobile payment space, the fact that there are so many options available to consumers only seems to add to the confusion. And let’s face it, is it really that much easier to pay with a phone? What do companies like Google, PayPal and the like have to do to convince consumers to put away the plastic and pull out their mobile phone? Head over to Retail Online Integration's Twitter page to join the discussion.
Everyone from Google to every major cell carrier in the U.S. really, really wants consumers to start paying for things in stores with their mobile phones. And yet adoption of the technology in the U.S. has been slow. Similar "mobile wallets" have been available in Japan since 2004, and yet by the end of 2010, in a typical month only 10 percent of Japanese consumers were using their phones to make a purchase. So what's wrong with people?
An "exponential" growth in shopping via smartphones and an increasing customer awareness of price promotions are some of the key retail trends identified by separate new reports from eBay and Nielsen. According to the latest eBay Online Business Index, nearly half of Australia's top eBay businesses said they would optimize online content for mobile. Almost a quarter (24 percent) said they would develop a mobile website, while more than 20 percent said they would develop a mobile app. According to eBay Vice President Deborah Sharkey, mobile commerce in Australia is growing at an exponential rate.
Earlier this week we shared how today's consumers expect more — much more — from mobile sites. They told us so in our recent research survey, What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today. We'll share more results, with some great examples of businesses giving mobile users what they want. Whether you're a Fortune 500 company or the pizza shop down on the corner, creating a mobile-friendly site is a critical step: 67% of mobile users say that they're more likely to buy a product or service from a mobile-friendly site
As the tablet wars ratchet up for the holiday season, mass merchants are kicking the competition off the shelf. Wal-Mart is dropping the Amazon Kindle (and all Amazon.com products). That follows Target's spring dismissal of Amazon and its Kindle as the online retailer becomes ever-more competitive. Now, Toys"R"Us, encouraged by the hot-selling children's tablet it sold exclusively last year, is introducing its own branded tablet and ditching Nabi, leaving the next-generation Nabi 2 to be sold by Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart.
comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, released a study on U.S. smartphone shopping behavior based on data from its comScore Mobile Metrix 2.0 service. The study found that four in every five smartphone users — 85.9 million in total — accessed retail content on their device in July. Amazon.com sites led as the top retailer with an audience of 49.6 million visitors, while multichannel retailers including Apple (17.7 million visitors), Wal-Mart (16.3 million visitors), Target (10 million visitors) and Best Buy (7.2 million visitors) also attracted significant mobile audiences.
At Design Within Reach, we make authentic modern design accessible. Rob Forbes founded the company in 1999 when he tried to furnish his apartment with the clean, simple classics he'd come to appreciate while living in London, but found that many of his favorite designers weren't accessible in the United States. Design Within Reach quickly took off and today has 44 retail locations across the U.S. and Canada.
eBay is entering the territory of mobile shopping app shopkick with the latest update in the e-commerce giant's barcode scanning app, RedLaser. eBay is adding geofencing to its RedLaser application and partnering with Best Buy to allow users to see special offers, browse open-stock items and view items relevant to them right when they step into one of the electronics retailer's 1,100 locations.
Square's $200 million Series D and $3.25 billion valuation yesterday may have risen expectations massively for where mobile payments will ultimately go, but for now the vast majority of us are still pulling out our cash, cards and checks to buy things. A study from Deloitte, notes that today in the UK only 1% of mobile consumers have ever used a handset to pay for something in a retail location. However, it also provides some convincing evidence that we are at least well on our way to linking mobiles - specifically smartphones - to retail purchases anyway.
For the first time, customer experience analytics company ForeSee has begun measuring mobile satisfaction when it comes to the retail experience. As you may know, ForeSee has been measuring online retail satisfaction for some time now. According to ForeSee's report, Amazon, Avon, and Apple are the top mobile sites in terms of customer satisfaction (both on smartphones and tablets).