Category: Apps

Mobile shopping is changing the entire buying experience

| March 17, 2015

Data from Stastita has revealed that consumers are enjoying m-commerce for a growing number of reasons.

Smartphones have undergone a tremendous evolution over the last few years and this has brought about the rapid creation of mobile shopping trends in which consumers buy products and services over those devices when they may previously have purchased them on desktop computers or in person.

That said, even though m-commerce has not been in existence very long, it has undergone considerable changes.

Retailers are coming to realize that consumers expect mobile shopping options to be available to them as a part of the overall buying experience. Those companies are looking for new ways to optimize their offerings to consumers who use smartphones and tablets, among other devices, so that they can find products, compare, look at pricing and availability, and even make the purchase, itself.

Mobile shopping has been found to be beneficial for shoppers and retailers alike, driving it forward.

Mobile Shopping buying experienceThrough m-commerce, retailers are able to better communicate with shoppers no matter where they are, regardless of whether they are at home, within their own store, or even within the brick and mortar shop of their competition. Consumers are able to more conveniently find the information that they want with regards to a product, including details about its benefits, customer reviews, and prices at various different locations.

Data from Statista has shown that there are some very specific features that consumers enjoy about being able to use mobile commerce to look for and purchase the products and services they want. They include the following:

• 59 percent appreciate the ability to shop regardless of where they are
• 47 percent like to be able to compare product prices while they are in a store
• 33 percent like the speed of mobile shopping
• 25 percent like being able to access retailer websites
• 21 percent like to use apps to shop
• 20 percent like to receive mobile marketing such as digital offers and vouchers
• 12 percent like online payments solutions
• 10 percent liked the discretion
• 9 percent enjoy the ability to pay with their devices while in store

Leading mobile wallet app in India adds bank account support

| March 17, 2015

This will give the users of the application the opportunity to use a new type of transaction through their smartphones.

A mobile wallet based in India, Paytm, has now announced the introduction of a new feature that will give 25 million users the ability to transfer funds to their bank accounts through the use of their smartphones.

This company is operated by One97, which is a business that is backed by Alibaba, the Chinese e-giant.

Mobile wallets have been rapidly rising in popularity in India. This country is one of the markets in the world where this type of smartphone based payments app has the best chances of success, due to the massive population and the low adoption of credit cards. Many merchants, including online retailers, have had to come up with ways to process transactions through cash. In fact, the current estimate is that even though there are more than a billion people in the country, there are only 450 million bank accounts, not all of which are considered to be actively used.

Mobile wallets provide users with greater reliability than cash without having to obtain a bank account.

Mobile Wallet app - India BankingThat said, for those individuals who do have bank accounts, Paytm has now announced that its mobile payments app – which is supported by many different retailers and services, including Uber – has boosted the versatility of its offerings for the management of small floats of cash.

The users of the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) mobile apps are now able to transfer up to $80 (5,000 INR) per day, and they can make transfers of up to $400 (25,000 INR) per month. The minimum transfer amount is $16 (1,000 INR). The sender needs to have at least $32 (2,000 INR) in credit available to them in order to make the transfer.

This is not the first time that One97 has discussed this new feature, but considering the fact that Alibaba made an investment into the company in February, it is now starting to gain a great deal more attention. That agreement brought an estimated $200 million investment to One97, valuing it at $1 billion and bringing the Chinese e-commerce giant into India for the first time. That company is already wildly successful for its own mobile wallet and payments service, Alipay.