Tag: india mobile commerce

This new smartphone payments service has been made available to device users in India.

Idea Cellular has recently announced the launch of its new mobile wallet service, called Idea Money, that is designed to give consumers the ability to complete certain payment transactions, such as recharging their prepaid mobile accounts.

It is also designed to allow utility bell payments DTH recharges, and make online money transfers.

This service was first launched in July in Mumbai and it will be rolled out throughout India through a number of phases, said a source from the company. That said, that individual declined to share the availability timeline for the availability of the mobile wallet across the country. This is far from the only service of this nature that is available within the Indian market. Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Bharti Airtel, and other mobile operators are already providing mobile payments options to their customers.

The Idea Money website describes the mobile wallet as a semi-closed prepaid payment service.

That website explained that the service is being offered by Idea Mobile Commerce Services Limited (IMCSL), which obtained its license to provide it through the Reserve Bank of India. Idea stated that “Simply put, it is a prepaid account which can be accessed using your mobile phone or the Internet for conducting a variety of transactions like prepaid mobile recharges, DTH recharges, utility bill payments, money transfers & more.”

At the moment, the number of uses for these mobile payments is limited to certain bills on top of money transfers. It can recharge prepaid mobile services, recharge DTH, pay off utility bills, and send money to specific accounts. Though this does provide consumers with a convenient opportunity to use their smartphones and tablets to make payments, the company is hopeful that the uses will soon be able to broaden.

At the same time that it is focused on rolling out this mobile wallet across the remainder of India, it is also looking into additional uses for the service. This includes the introduction of mobile payments for shopping at stores and restaurants, for example, as well as uses for ticketing transactions. This could help to boost the appeal of the service among consumers who are using their smartphones for a growing number of daily activities.

Snapdeal is showing rapid growth in its online sales over smartphones and tablets.

The Indian shopping marketplace, Snapdeal, has seen quite the difference over the last year in the percentage of online sales that is being brought in through mobile commerce as opposed to using a personal computer.

This most rapidly growing shopping site in India had seen only 5 percent of its $400 million in sales from mobile shoppers in 2013.

This year, the annual gross merchandise volume broke the $1 billion mark, according to Kunal Bahl, the company’s CEO, and mobile commerce is now accounting for 60 percent of its sales. Clearly, this is a tremendous rise in the share of the sales that are coming from smartphones and tablets in India. That said, this is a trend that is being sought after by online marketplaces around the world, including the giants such as Amazon.

Amazon recently revealed that it would be investing an additional $2 billion into its mobile commerce marketplace in India.

Equally, Flipkart, which is a privately held company, has announced a similar investment of $1 billion. Snapdeal has also been speaking informally with American bankers about the opportunity for an IPO in the future.

This is a clear indication that when it comes to the Indian online shopping marketplace, m-commerce is starting to play a very important role. Moreover, this type of insight suggests that retailers that want to remain competitive will need to make sure that they are providing a strong mobile optimized experience so that consumers can shop over their favorite devices.

There has been some hesitation among certain companies, simply because there is risk involved. This remains a relatively immature market, as much as it has been taking off rather quickly. That said, because the trend is clearly showing that people in India are more than willing to make purchases on their smartphones and tablets, it is becoming increasingly evident that this is a channel that is likely to stick around and only become increasingly important, as opposed to being a passing fad.

Mobile commerce is soon to be a highly competitive and meaningful market and companies that fail to keep up may miss out on a considerable opportunity.