Enthusiasm for mobile payments is growing quickly among retailers and consumers alike

In 2015, the mobile payments space began to emerge as a mainstream power. Over the holiday season, various businesses were exposed to the success that could be had from a focus on the mobile sector, and their enthusiasm for mobile payments is likely to carry over into this year. Matt Asay, vice president of mobile for Adobe Marketing Cloud, noted that the holiday season was a fantastic time for mobile shopping despite the fact that many consumers reported stress from using mobile payments services.

Retailers are being pressured to improve the mobile shopping experience

Asay suggests that consumers are fairly ahead of retailers when it comes to mobile shopping. They are well aware of what they want in a mobile shopping experience, and retailers have been struggling to accommodate the demands coming from consumers. Converting mobile shoppers into actual paying customers has proven to be a challenge. Retailers are expected to focus more heavily on improving the mobile shopping experience in 2016.

Report shows that mobile payments will comprise 45% of all e-commerce transactions by 2020

According to a recent report from BI Intelligence, mobile payments will comprise 45% of all e-commerce transactions by 2020. This will account for approximately $284 billion in sales. This is three times more in sales that is expected to be reported in 2016. Retailers may have to shift focus away from mobile applications in order to effectively engage the customers that are becoming invested in mobile payments. Mobile websites have, thus far, provided a better shopping experience for consumers than applications.

More retailers may begin supporting mobile payments in physical stores

Retailers are expected to begin supporting mobile payments in their physical stores as a way to provide consumers with a worthwhile experience. Many consumers already use their smartphones and tablets in physical stores, but only to search for and research products that they are interested in. Retailers may be able to increase conversion rates by supporting mobile payments at physical stores, allowing consumers to make purchases with their devices rather than traditional forms of commerce.

The tech giant has thrown its hat in the VR technology ring along with Microsoft and Facebook.

Microsoft and Facebook have been powering forward with virtual reality technology, but at the same time it has appeared as though Google has been falling behind in this particular category.

That said, 2016 is starting to suggest that this isn’t the case as Google has been making moves to catch up.

It has now been revealed that Google is making moves to form its own division that is dedicated to virtual reality tech and computing. As a central component of this effort, it has now named Sundar Pichai – the company’s CEO – as a division head, according to several sources. This represents a massive shift in control positions at the company as it simultaneously indicates that the company has a new intention to create a solid enterprise business. After all, with this shift in execs, it will be senior vice president Diane Green who will take control over the company’s tremendous consumer web applications.

While the changes have been confirmed by a Google spokesperson, further discussion of virtual reality was declined.

The Google vice president of product management, Clay Bavor, has been in control of the company’s apps; such as Drive, Gmail and Docs. Since the launch of Cardboard in 2014, he has also been the head of that division. Moving forward, Bavor is stepping away from apps in order to place all his attention on VR products. As he steps out of apps, Greene is stepping in, who joined the company in November in order to take control of the newly formed enterprise operations.

The original creation of Cardboard had been to create a form of VR technology that could be introduced in a mainstream way. So far, it has seen some limited success as it has recently started some distribution programs with schools. It also brought about a new GoPro integration that made it possible to carry VR video over to YouTube. That feature was initially introduced in May 2015 at the Google I/O, by Bavor.

This most recent large move in virtual reality might help to assuage the concerns and criticisms of people in the industry who have been indicating that Google isn’t all that dedicated to the tech.