Mobile shopping hits a new high

Mobile commerce has erupted during Thanksgiving and Black Friday, aligning with the expectations coming from many retailers throughout the U.S. and elsewhere. Branding Brands, a leading commerce firm representing some of the world’s top retailers, has issued a report concerning mobile sales, traffic, and general mobile activity during the year’s most active shopping days. The report notes that mobile sales showed astonishing growth this year over what they had been in 2012, providing strong encouragement for retailers that have invested heavily in mobile-centric endeavors.

Data shows that mobile traffic has grown rapidly

According to Branding Brands, mobile traffic to retail sites increased by 69% over what had been recorded during Thanksgiving and Black Friday of 2012. The data collected by Branding Brands suggests that smartphones were the most widely used mobile platform for shoppers this year. Approximately 32.56% of all e-commerce traffic to retail sites came from smartphones this year, with tablets following closely behind.

Mobile sales increase by 258%

Traffic is not the only aspect of mobile commerce that has been showing impressive growth during the holidays. According to Branding Brands, mobile sales have exploded thanks to the mobile initiatives launched by retailers. These initiatives were meant to capture the attention of mobile consumers, many of whom were expected to purchase products during Thanksgiving and Black Friday from their mobile devices rather than visit physical stores. Branding Brands’ data shows that mobile sales for 2013 have increase by 258% over what had been reported by retailers in 2012.

Adobe highlights growing interest in mobile commerce

Technology firm Adobe has also been monitoring mobile activity recently. The firm has collected data from more than 400 million online visits to over 2,000 retail sites throughout the U.S. This data shows that 24% of all online sales were made from a smartphone or tablet during Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a 118% increase over what sales had been in 2012.

This adds one more option to the limited number of cards that are currently available to use.

The joint venture Isis mobile wallet that was created through AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon has not been entirely popular among consumers, even after its nationwide launch in November, but the payments option is now working to overcome one of its primary barriers to adoption.

The system is now supporting American Express Serve to help to boost its cards.

One of the primary problems that consumers have had with the Isis mobile wallet is that it supported only two cards. Those are the Chase and American Express cards. This means that if a consumer wishes to try the service he or she must have one of those two cards. It won’t support regular debit cards, nor the two credit card giants, Visa and MasterCard, at the moment. This new addition could help to change that.

The latest change to the Isis mobile wallet could mean that more cards will be compatible, if indirectly.

With the support that the payments service will now have for American Express Serve, it will mean that there could be a roundabout way for consumers to be able to choose their favorite cards to pay for their purchases. The reason is that Serve acts as a kind of digital prepaid card that can be prepaid. This means that it can be loaded with funds from credit cards, debit cards, or a bank account. Once the funds have been added, it can be used in any location that already accepts American Express credit cards.

As Serve has already been doing a great deal better than the Isis mobile wallet, overall, particularly among business clients, it looks as though this could give the program a considerable shot in the arm in terms of its appeal to consumers and its compatibility with the types of cards that they already carry. It has also been considered to be quite helpful in terms of expense management, as it functions in the same way as cash instead of credit. It makes it easier for the user to be able to stick to a budget and pay attention to how much he or she is spending.