Author: Denny

Macy’s finds success through focus on mobile space

Retail giant Macy’s has been working to engage mobile consumers in a more dynamic way recently. The retailer has seen its customers evolve over the years, with more people becoming apt to use their mobile devices to shop and make purchases. At times, these consumers have been difficult to appeal to because of the lack of mobile services the retailer employed in the past. Over the past two years, however, Macy’s has established a strong grip on mobile consumers and continues to look for ways to engage these people with the services they have come to expect from the retailer.

QR codes and application overhaul provide better service to consumers

In the months leading up to the 2012 holiday shopping season, Macy’s began to use QR codes to direct consumers to digital content that could be found on the retailer’s mobile website. The company also launched a major overhaul of its mobile application, updating the platform to be more accommodating of mobile commerce. Macy’s saw 44% of the applications existing users download the updated version of the application before Black Friday last year. The overhaul spurred a 19% growth in the application’s user base.

Mobile commerce proves popular

In the retailer’s 39,000-square-foot store in Herald Square, New York City, store associates make use of mobile devices to provide information to customers concerning inventory and particular, often difficult to find, items. These devices are also used to process mobile payments. Macy’s recently began accepting mobile payments made through the use of Google Wallet and the retailer is part of a pilot project for Isis, one of the main competitors of Google Wallet, in Utah and Texas.

Macy’s finds balance in mobile focus

Macy’s has positioned itself to take advantage of the growing interest consumers are showing in mobile commerce. The retailer has managed to make itself stand out from amongst the competition by finding ways to engage mobile consumers and, more importantly, direct them to physical stores throughout the country. A focus on mobile consumers has, in the past, backfired for many retailers, leading many consumers to stop coming to physical stores. Macy’s seems to have found the appropriate balance to avoid this pitfall.

This will allow cardholders in India to take advantage of a paperless program for debit and credit.

Citibank India has just announced that it is making a new mobile payments system available to provide paperless banking to its credit and debit cardholders, which would eliminate the need for printed receipts.

The service will then go on to become available to the entire Citigroup global network.

This mcommerce news places Citibank India at the very head of all of the Citigroup country franchises that have launched a mobile payments solution that is innovative within the industry. This particular system was developed in conjunction with the technology available through its partner in the venture, Ezetap.

The bank released a statement that indicated that it already has seven mobile payments partnerships.

By the launch of the mobile payments service in India, it had already established partnerships with seven of the country’s leading brands. It hopes that a large number of its over 320 million cardholders will embrace this technologies and begin to see their mobile devices as a new way to complete credit and debit transactions.

The new mobile payments solution is designed to assist consumers in being able to buy a number of different goods and services. However, it will also allow them to pay bills, such as their smartphone service invoice or their insurance premiums. It can also help them to purchase tickets to movies, the theater, and various events. All of these transactions can be completed wherever the consumer happens to be: at home, at work, or elsewhere, and the purchases will be charged to the Citibank card of their choice.

That said, the banking institution has also said that the mobile payments will also allow consumers to make purchases at retail locations, themselves, without having to stand in line to reach the checkout counter. Instead, they will be able to complete a paperless transaction at any point in the store. Citibank has explained that it hopes that this will eliminate the need to have to keep track of sales receipts and slips, for convenience both for the consumer and the merchant, alike.