Retailer aims to bolster presence in mobile commerce

Prominent online retailer eBay is poised to expand its presence in the mobile space, according to the company’s new chief product officer, RJ Pittman. The newly hired Pittman recently left a position with Apple in order to pursue new opportunities. Pittman garnered acclaim in his field for developing Apple’s popular storefront and may be a powerful addition to eBay’s staff. The retailer has been working to bolster its presence in the mobile space in order to hold more sway over mobile commerce.

The mobile space has become a priority for eBay

Mobile commerce has become a major focus for eBay due to its popularity with consumers. Many people favor mobile commerce over more traditional forms of commerce because it is more convenient for them to shop online rather than in person. Retailers like eBay offer comprehensive mobile infrastructures that make it easy for consumers to shop on their mobile devices, thereby making it more likely for them to purchase products online. While eBay currently boasts of a significant presence in the mobile field, the retailer is prepared to increase this presence significantly in the near future.

Pittman to focus on improving services

Pittman is currently working to improve eBay’s payment process in order to make it friendlier to mobile users. The retailer already has the backing of PayPal, which is an eBay subsidiary, and Pittman believes that the services offered by PayPal could be put to better use by its parent company. PayPal’s recent acquisition of mobile commerce pioneer Braintree may have some impact on Pittman’s plans as the acquisition provides PayPal, as well as eBay, access to powerful mobile commerce technology.

eBay aims to bring mobile commerce to physical stores

While eBay expects that mobile commerce will have an impact on online shopping, the retailer intends to leverage the power of the mobile space to make shopping in physical stores more engaging. Consumers may be growing more reliant on their mobile devices, but that does not mean they are abandoning physical stores. Ensuring that traditional retailers can accommodate the needs of mobile consumers by embracing mobile commerce has become a priority for eBay.

Companies will be spending more to advertise and promote over that channel in the next 12 months.

A recent report on mobile marketing and commerce has determined that showrooming may not be considered to be as great of a threat as expected, as only 11 percent of retailers participating in a study claimed that they felt that it is a shopping behavior that could be harmful to their own revenues.

For this reason, many companies are pouring more money into the channel to help to boost their in store experience.

The research, which was published by BuyDesire and Econsultancy determined that most companies will be increasing their mobile marketing budgets over the next year and that this reflects a greater adoption of the channel, overall. They showed that out of every ten companies, seven have said that they would be increasing their spending in this area within the 12 months following the survey. The purpose is to keep up with the growth of the channel.

Only a small number of companies are currently using mobile marketing at the moment.

However, the current trends are changing and although the majority of companies are not using mobile marketing at the moment, they are changing their tunes and will primarily be doing so within the next year in some shape or form. They will be incorporating these technologies into their overall strategies on a growing basis.

The survey was conducted by the company from July through August and involved the participation of over 500 agency and in-house marketers. Among them, almost one third (29 percent) intend to use tablet optimized websites for the first time in the next year, with a considerable growth in location based mobile marketing (22 percent) and m-commerce (20 percent).

According to an Econsultancy research analysis, Bola Awoniyi, who spoke about these mobile marketing study results, “The research makes it clear we are at a tipping point with regards to mobile marketing and m-commerce. More companies that have been treading water with mobile technology will be taking the plunge in the near future.” It was also seen that only 11 percent feel threatened in any way by showrooming, even though 67 percent noted that the in-store use of smartphones was rising.