Tag: india mobile commerce

Firm raises funds to support global expansion

Citrus Payments, a payment technology firm based in India, has announced that it has raised $5.5 million in funding from its group of investors. The funding comes at an ideal time when mobile payments are becoming more popular among consumers throughout India. Smartphones and tablets are becoming more common among consumers and these devices are exposing many to the concept of mobile commerce. Consumers are showing strong interest in mobile commerce because of the convenience that it represents.

US and European markets prove attractive

Citrus Payments intends to use its new funding to further expand its presence around the world. The firm has produced some popular mobile payments services in the past that have been used by large companies in Asia and elsewhere. The firm expects to find significant success in markets beyond Asia as mobile commerce continues to grow in popularity around the world. Notably, demand for new payment technologies has been on the rise in Europe and the U.S., where mobile device ownership is quite high.

Competition is fierce in the mobile commerce field

Mobile commerce is a competitive field, so Citrus Payments may have a lot of fighting to do before it can establish a strong foothold in new markets. Large companies, such as Square, Google, and PayPal, already boast of a dominating presence in popular markets. A multitude of startups are also vying for the attention of consumers around the world, making it difficult for any single company to stand out, regardless of how much backing it may have from investors.

Security may be a major challenge

Companies that aim to do well in mobile commerce have numerous challenges that they must overcome. Many consumers cite security as the main reason they are not interested in the concept of mobile payments. Addressing this specific issue has been quite problematic, given the nature of technology and security. Citrus Payments has shown that it can overcome some of the challenges it has experienced in the past, but new challenges are emerging at a rapid pace that may test the firm’s flexibility and ability to adapt.

Smartphone based purchases are representing a very large proportion of the overall figure.

The largest online marketplace in India, Snapdeal, has just released its mobile commerce data in that it has revealed that at the moment 30 percent of online purchases are originating from smartphones.

This trend has appeared to increase to a tremendous degree on the website, skyrocketing over last year’s figures.

When compared to the mobile commerce proportion of online purchases, last year, it looks as though the figure has grown by a tremendous 10 times. This is because at the same time last year, only 3 percent of the Snapdeal purchases were originating from smartphones.

The mobile commerce research was conducted by Snapdeal, itself, and provides insight into buying behaviors.

This mobile commerce study provided interesting and useful knowledge regarding the way that consumers behave, and the trends that are forming around them. The average number of visitors recorded by Snapdeal for its website was between 35 and 40 million per month. Among them, 12 million are from smartphones. From that 80 percent is organic, and 60 percent is new to the website. Among those shopping from their smartphones, 75 percent were COD, while the last quarter paid in advance.

This last data suggests that consumers may not be entirely comfortable making mobile commerce purchases online, and that they are taking precautions by paying on delivery instead of trying to pay in advance before they have received the product, in the vast majority of circumstances.

The majority of the mobile commerce visits to the sites originated from the cities of: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi – listed in no particular order. The top selling categories over this channel on the Snapdeal website were clothing (both men’s and women’s), men’s footwear, flash drives, and memory cards.

This mobile commerce data, as a whole, suggests that the majority of smartphone users are shopping a great deal more over their devices and that this growth rate is an exceptionally rapid one considering the difference between the figures from last year and the statistics that have been recorded from this year.