Author: JT

Mobile payments initiative meets success

Homeland Stores, a regional supermarket grocery chain based in the U.S., has concluded a pilot program for its mobile payments initiative. The SwiftScan program, as it is called, was initially launched in June of this year and was meant to demonstrate the benefits of mobile payments in the retail sector. The technology for the retailer’s mobile payments platform comes from Double Beam, which has significant experience in the mobile commerce sector.

Application uses QR codes as alternative to NFC

The SwiftScan application is meant to allow users to pay for groceries using their smartphones. The application functions in the same way that typical mobile payments services do, facilitating transactions through the use of authentication systems designed to verify the identity of its user. SwiftScan also makes use of QR codes, which are becoming a relatively common mobile commerce tool. The codes are typically seen only in marketing, but have been gaining traction in the mobile payments sector as an alternative to NFC technology.

Retailer to expand availability of mobile payments app

The pilot program took place at 20 of Homeland Stores’ locations. The program has been considered a success, which means the retailer will be expanding the availability of its mobile payments application to 26 additional locations by the end of October. The company notes that consumers have responded very well to the application and the services it provides, providing the retail with sufficient encouragement to continue pursuing mobile payments aggressively.

Mobile commerce continues to gain ground with retailers

Mobile payments services are becoming more common among retailers as consumers begin showing more favor for mobile commerce in general. Technology and financial firms like Google and PayPal are not the only ones offering mobile commerce platforms to consumers. Retailers are developing their own platforms in the hopes of establishing a strong presence in the mobile payments field. Thus far, few retailers have been able to accomplish this goal, but the mobile commerce field is still relatively young.

Half of all smartphone shoppers in the U.K. are disappointed with the overall experience.

When it comes to mobile marketing and the smartphone commerce experience that is currently being offered, companies are finding themselves in a jam, as consumers appear to expect the usability of websites to be the equivalent of what they know from the standard web.

Unfortunately, these are two different technologies and the capabilities of smartphones aren’t there yet.

As businesses tinker with their mobile optimized websites, they are often either limiting them by too much of an extreme, or are weighing down each page too heavily with various objects, making it impossible to use for consumers who simply aren’t willing to wait the length of time that it takes to load. According to Eptica, a multi-channel consumer engagement firm, this is making mobile marketing and experience creation an extremely challenging process.

Companies are failing to meet the expectations of consumers in their mobile marketing and commerce.

More than ever before, consumers are receiving mobile marketing and are shopping over their smartphones but the latest survey from Eptica is showing that the majority of them don’t like the experience that they’re receiving. Feedback was received from 1,000 adults in the United Kingdom by way of this research, and what it determined was that 52 percent of those individuals felt that more than half of the websites that they visited using a smartphone or tablet had not been properly optimized for their preferred device.

The mobile marketing data was released in the 2013Mobile Customer Experience Study from Eptica. It also looked into the foundation issues that related to the unpleasant experience that consumers have said that they are having. The primary struggle was related to a lack of functionality both on the mobile web, as well as within apps that were designed for their devices (36 percent). Nearly as many people (34 percent) said that they were frustrated with the long loading times. Another 34 percent said that they disliked the websites that were not optimized to be viewed on the smaller screen of the smartphone or tablet gadgets.