Tag: mastercard mcommerce

Mobile Internet could foster the growth of mobile payments

As commerce grows to be more mobile-centric, the quality of the mobile Internet is beginning to attract a great deal of attention. Most consumers with smartphones and tablets use their devices to browse the Internet for one purpose or another. The common consensus among these consumers is that a slow Internet connection is tedious and frustrating. In terms of mobile commerce, slow connections could be catastrophic as they could lead to multiple charges during a transaction due to consumer frustration and cause many to shy away from the idea of mobile payments altogether.

Faster Internet speeds provide better services to consumers

In order to ensure the continued growth of mobile payments, better Internet connections are required. MasterCard, one of the financial service companies investing heavily in the mobile commerce field, believes that current mobile Internet networks are simply not conducive to the long term growth and adoption of mobile payments. The company claims that 4G networks provide the ideal speed through which consumers can enjoy mobile commerce. These networks do not only allow for quick and efficient mobile payments, they also enable more connectivity between merchants and consumers, allowing both parties to interact more dynamically.

Businesses begin feeling pressure to modernize

High-speed Internet connections have long been reserved for stationary computers stuck in homes. The advent of mobile technology drew attention to a new way that the Internet could be used while people are away from their homes. Thus, the mobile Internet has become a major part of the lives of consumers, a growing number of whom are becoming seriously reliant on their smartphones and tablets. These consumers are forcing businesses to look at the mobile space more seriously and find ways to cater to the needs of a new generation of customers.

Some businesses may be unprepared for the adoption of 4G Internet

According to MasterCard, more businesses are beginning to see the value of mobile payments and how mobile commerce, as a whole, can be supported through the adoption of high-speed mobile Internet. MasterCard notes that many businesses may not be ready to facilitate 4G connectivity as the services they offer are based on slower Internet speeds, but the momentum behind mobile commerce may force these businesses to update their services if they want to get in on the action.

A new study is showing that these nations are concentrating heavily on shopping over this channel.

China is currently leading the world as the region of the glob that has the largest mcommerce activity, but most of the countries in the Asia Pacific are focusing their attention on that channel at the moment.

According to a recent study’s results, the fastest rise of smartphone shopping is also occurring there.

The research was performed by MasterCard, and it showed that while China may be the country where the most mcommerce purchases are being made, it is in Indonesia and Thailand where the most rapid growth is being seen in purchases made over smartphones and tablets.

The MasterCard study showed that over half of all consumers from Thailand and Indonesia are now using mcommerce for shopping purposes.

The report was based on a study which was designed to examine the inclination of consumers to shop online and was held throughout 25 different markets around the world in November and December of last year. The final report included the results of interviews with 7,011 respondents in 14 markets in the Asia Pacific region.

These participants were asked a number of questions in order to better understand their shopping habits online. China was the clear frontrunner, but other leading countries for mcommerce included New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, and South Korea.

Among the primary drivers behind the shift toward mcommerce in all of these countries – particularly in China – was a confidence boost in shopping using smartphones and tablets. The survey showed that only 21.4 percent of the respondents said that they didn’t feel that shopping over mobile devices was secure. This was a decrease from the year before, when it had been 32.8 percent, which had also fallen from 2010, when the figure was 35.3 percent.

Beyond confidence, consumers in China also revealed that they felt that mcommerce made shopping online “easy”. Among the respondents from that country, 89.5 percent agreed with that statement, which was a rise from the year before when only 80.8 percent felt that way in the survey that was conducted for the MasterCard research that year.