Author: JT

New Year’s celebrations lead to more mobile spending throughout China

The Lunar New Year has come and gone and mobile commerce surged during the Chinese holiday. During the Lunar New Year, those living in China send one another traditional red packets, called hong bao. These red envelopes typically contain money and is something that many people look forward to receiving every year. With the emergency of mobile technology, the way people give hong bao to one another has changed, which has been good news for mobile commerce in general.

Payment platforms enable consumers to send and receive hong bao efficiently

Both WeChat and Alipay enable people to deliver hong bao cards to one another. Both platforms have become very popular in China, as they allow people to make purchases and send money to others. These two platforms have allowed mobile shopping to thrive in China and have given their owners, Tencent and Alibaba respectively, a competitive edge over those that would try to enter into China’s mobile commerce market. During the Lunar New Year, the platforms proved to be particularly effective in serving mobile consumers.

The number of hong bao being send through mobile services continues to rise ad mobile payments become more common

According to Tencent, more than 8 billion hong bao cards were exchanged during the Lunar New Year. This is eight times more than the number of hong bao that were sent last year. This is actually a trend that has been seen over the past few years. More consumers are becoming mobile-centric, which is making them more comfortable with the concept of mobile payments and how their devices can be used to connect with one another.

China continues to be an attractive mobile commerce market for many

This year, the hong bao may highlight the growing importance of mobile payments systems, as well as their value. During the third quarter of 2015, China’s mobile commerce space was valued at approximately $368 million. The country is considered the fastest growing mobile payments market in the world, attracting the attention of other companies that are in this sector.

The massive online marketplace has informed buyers in the country that they won’t accept smartphone returns.

Amazon India has now released a statement to shoppers in India to let them know that if they buy mobile phones over the online marketplace and that is not an order fulfilled by the company, itself, then the devices are not returnable.

Feature and smartphones purchased in orders fulfilled by Amazon, itself, will still be covered by the return policy.

When orders are not filled by Amazon, buyers will only be able to have the product replaced in the case that it arrived in defective or damaged condition during transit. That said, the “no longer needed” option will not be available on those purchases any longer. The option for replacement of the product will be available to buyers for a span of 10 days after it was delivered.

The new regulation regarding the withdrawal of the return of mobile phones became effective on February 7.

It was becoming quite well known that the return policy was being abused in India when it came to mobile devices. This was becoming a regular issue from which both Amazon India and the website’s massive seller community, were suffering. It was reaching the point that it was commonplace for buyers to purchase the latest mobile technology, use it for a few days and then return it.

The returns were being made regardless of the fact that there was nothing wrong with the device. This was causing Amazon India to have to take on the cost of the additional shipping of the perfectly functional smartphones. At the same time, the sellers of the mobile devices were finding themselves having to return the purchase price and deal with the returned merchandise.

The situation for sellers through Amazon India is not the same as that in the United States. In the U.S., a restocking fee is sometimes charged to the buyer when an item is returned for reasons other than damage or defectiveness. Without these additional levels of deterrent, the system was being abused, particularly in the case of the purchase of mobile phones.