Tag: ebay mobile commerce

eBay continues to shine the limelight on mobile commerce

For several years, eBay has dominated the e-commerce scene, with only Amazon considered to be its most significant competitor. The online retailer has put a great deal of emphasis in improving the online shopping experience of consumers and has recently begun to embrace more commerce in an aggressive fashion. Indeed, eBay anticipates that mobile commerce will account for a significant portion of its sales in the coming years. This week, CEO John Donahoe outlined plans to take the company in a relatively new direction: Offline commerce.

Retailer aims to blur the lines between physical and digital commerce

Donahoe is eager to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds when it comes to commerce. This has been accomplished to some degree by eBay already through the adoption of mobile commerce. Consumers shopping for products from their mobile devices have shown how blurry the lines between physical and digital retail have become. This summer, eBay plans to partner with several retailers in order to make mobile commerce have an even more tangible presence in the real world.

Pop up shops gaining notice

According to Donahoe, eBay will be working to support “pop up” shops this year. The idea behind pop up shops is somewhat simple: A store front that can be located anywhere and sell products online to those using mobile devices. These shops are becoming more popular in the retail industry, especially when it comes to retailers trying to reach out to busy consumers. In 2011, UK retailer Tesco created a pop up shop in South Korea, where QR codes where used to sell products to consumers using public transit. eBay has plans to follow in Tesco’s footsteps to some degree.

New York may soon have new pop up shops

The online retailer will be leveraging the power of QR codes in order to sell products. These codes can be scanned by a mobile device to initiate a mobile transaction. The products are then delivered to a consumer’s home or elsewhere as defined by the customer. PayPal and eBay already have strong ties to several physical retailers and expect that this initiative will be well received. The retailer plans to launch this new initiative this year in New York.

According to a recent study performed in the Indian market, there are hot products sold over mobile.

eBay India has released the results of their summertime m-commerce survey and has discovered that the channel will be exploding with shoppers over the hottest months of the year, and they know exactly what they want to buy.

The scorching heat appears to be adding some warmth to the smartphone shopping marketplace.

Within the m-commerce survey, eBay discovered that more than fifty percent of the population intends to make purchases over their smartphones or tablets, typically from the comfort of their own homes. They are choosing this alternative over having to leave their homes to deal with the sweltering heat this summer in order to head to the local mall.

Fifty nine percent of the m-commerce participants said they wanted to shop over smartphones and tablets.

The reason cited for this preference toward staying in and shopping over m-commerce instead of going in person to the mall was that they would be able to stay out of the heat and avoid the overcrowding in the market areas.

The survey also identified the top products that are expected to be purchased over the m-commerce channel. The research respondents said that they would be most likely to buy cotton apparel, shorts, t-shirts, caps, and sunglasses. Among the colors that are most likely to be purchased are green, blue, white, cream, and black.

According to the eBay India country manager, Muralikrishnan B., the adoption of m-commerce “has increased significantly in the country due to multiple factors such as enhanced 3G penetration and availability of affordable smartphones.” He added that this activity has become one of the preferred option for many Indians, particularly among those in the smaller cities.

This has become increasingly obvious as a recent m-commerce study that the company also performed has shown that 49 percent of the users of the online marketplace are from non-metropolitan cities. He added that because eBay is one of the pioneers into this channel within the country, they have considered it to be truly promising to watch the shift toward mobile in India.