Tag: mobile commerce news

PayPal continues to dominate the mobile payments field

The mobile commerce sector is rife with competition. The growing popularity of mobile payments of consumers has encouraged numerous startups to emerge, each looking to beat one another in the hopes of gaining consumer support. The problem, however, is that there is already a well established commerce platform that has muscled its way into the mobile sector: PayPal. The company has been involved in mobile payments for years before mobile commerce began gaining significant attention around the world and its presence in the sector may be too much for smaller companies to handle.

Competition may be too much for startups to handle

Consulting firm Crone Consulting LLC suggests that the mobile commerce market has become over saturated. There are numerous startups working against one another to appeal to consumers. Many of these organizations are offering mobile payments processing systems that are fee-free. While this may be attractive for merchants that are reaching out to mobile consumers, the fact that these startups are not making any money off these transactions has created some uncertainty among consumers.

Venture funding may not be an adequate option for mobile commerce startups

Many mobile payments startups are backed by venture funding. When this funding runs out, however, these companies may be unable to generate a profit or cover the costs associated with the services they offer. Some may be forced to begin charging a fee to process mobile transactions, which may lead to an exodus of clients they acquired through the promise of fee-free services. Others may simply close shop because they cannot afford to continue operation. Those that are determined to persist in the market will have to face PayPal, which boasts of $20 billion in mobile payments on a yearly basis.

Companies may find some success by focusing on very small niches in the market

According to a recent study from market research firm Gartner, the mobile commerce market is expected to reach $235.4 billion in global transaction value by the end of this year. The market is expected to see promising growth throughout the near future, a fact that has generated a great deal of encouragement for those interested in entering the mobile commerce field. Startups may find it difficult to find a foothold with giants like PayPal crowding the field, however, which has led some companies to focus on very specific niches in the mobile payments sector in order to find some degree of success and solvency.

The results of a new survey have just been released and have shown that people don’t necessarily go out to buy.

PriceGrabber has just released the results of a mobile commerce survey that they conducted on the topic of back to school and which has provided some insight into consumer behaviors for making that type of purchase.

The research examined everything from where parents look for deals and what experience they enjoy most.

For example, the Pricegrabber survey indicated that mobile commerce is playing a very important role in back to school shopping this year. Sixty seven percent of the shoppers who took part in the survey indicated that they checked prices online before heading out to buy. Moreover, another 47 percent receive discount coupons over their smartphones via text message. Another 47 percent read emails containing discount offers while they are in-store.

Forty two percent of the survey participants use mobile commerce to make a purchase.

As fascinating and helpful as that mobile commerce data may be, there was one element of the survey that drew a larger amount of attention. There were 1,937 American shoppers who took part in this research by giving their opinions and sharing details regarding their shopping behaviors. What was interesting is that many of the smartphones and tablets were used from home either to make the purchase, or to research before heading out in the first place.

There is a large concern being expressed by owners of brick and mortar stores. This was that 46 percent of consumers with smartphones will use those shops as a “showroom”, so that they can see the product in real life, but then use mobile commerce to try to find a better price for the same product, somewhere else. This means that while they may window shop in store, they are actually buying while they’re online.

That said, the survey has indicated that those stores don’t need to worry about this threat from mobile commerce, as only 17 percent are actually using the devices while in store. This means that only a fraction of them are actually practicing showrooming and, among them, there is likely only to be an insignificant few who will find the product with a price and shipping total that will be low enough to make it worthwhile to wait to have it delivered instead of picking it up while they’re already there.