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Author: Julie Campbell

Mobile commerce takes off with greater retail investments

Julie Campbell | July 29, 2013

The channel is booming as brands and companies discover that consumers are buying over their devices.

The latest figures have now been released from the e-Retail Sales Index from IMGR Capgemini, which has revealed that their mobile commerce index is continuing a rapid rise as retailers continue to catch on.

The massive year over year and month over month growth is being credited to retailer adoption.

The report from the latest index indicated a 136 percent growth when June of this year was compared to that of last year, and when May was compared to June this year, an 8 percent growth was recorded. Conversion rates had also experienced a considerable increase, which would prove highly appealing to retailers.

Mobile commerce conversion rates rose massively from 1.27 percent in June 2012 to 2.03 percent this year.

Mobile commerce 136 percent growth At the same time, retailers are seeing that the spending rates and conversion rates over the tablet mobile commerce channel are approaching those of desktops. This is an opportunity that many of them are refusing to ignore. Even specific sectors are showing promising growth, causing the companies in those areas to get on board.

In the U.K, clothing sales over mobile commerce saw a year over year growth in June of 29 percent, as summer wardrobe updates were made at the start of the season. Even more promising was the area of home and garden products, which saw a year over year growth of 35 percent in the same month as the winter was left long behind and landscaping, gardening, and home reno projects got started. Even travel rose over this channel as summer vacations were planned, with a year over year growth of 15 percent and a 4 percent month over month rise.

According to the Capgemini vice president and head of retail consulting and technology, Chris Webster, as consumer confidence continues to grow in mobile commerce and purchasing with their tablets and smartphones, the index is remaining very strong. The findings from their analysis is only underscoring existing evidence that wireless technologies have brought a great deal to the doorstep of the retail sector, and those companies are not failing to take hold.

NFC technology rings burst onto the wearable device market

Julie Campbell | July 26, 2013

The enhanced jewelry will unlock doors, transfer data, link people, and communicate with other devices.

Even NFC technology becomes more widely recognized, the majority of people have yet to work it into their everyday activities either because their own smartphones are not enabled or they simply don’t see the benefit.

This is, in part because the tech has experienced a broad struggle in becoming a part of the mainstream.

However, a man named Jon McLear is betting that the use of an NFC technology enabled ring will be all that is needed to show the world some of the amazing things that near field communication can do, so that it will burst into mainstream common use. Some examples include unlocking phones and doors, among other things.

The NFC technology ring project was started by McLear through the use of Kickstarter.

At the time of the writing of this article, McLear had already doubled his goal of £30,000, having received over £61,700 through the donations of more than 2,200 backers. As the funding opportunity closes on August 19, this clearly indicates that there will be many more funds to come and that the mastermind behind this project will have much more than he anticipated needing in order to bring this device to the market.

The NFC technology enabled ring will never require charging despite the fact that it simply needs to be worn on the finger and can be used for many different purposes, including data transfers (for example, WiFi information, website links, contact information, or other custom info) or being applied as a high tech house key.

This tiny NFC technology based device is bringing wearable mobile tech to an entirely new level. In order to use it with a reader – such as a smartphone with a near field communication chip or a door lock reader – the hand wearing the ring simply needs to be waved in very close proximity. The Android phone capabilities will be available through a free third party app called NFC Ring (developed by John McLear), and the door locks will be similar to the Lockitron security systems.