Author: Rebecca

7-Eleven, PChome, and CTBC have all introduced this new smartphone payments option.

PChome Online Inc subsidiary, Pi Mobile Technology Inc. has now launched the Pi mobile wallet app for consumers to use to may payments at over 5,000 convenience stores throughout Taiwan.

The application is the result of a collaborative effort among some of the major players in the country.

The Pi mobile wallet has come about because PChome, CTBC, and Uni-President Enteterprises are all working together to launch it. PChome is the top online shopping portal in Taiwan. CTBC Bank is the leading issuer of credit cards in the country. Uni-President Enterprises is the operator of Taiwan’s 7-Eleven franchise. According to Jan Hung-tze, the chairman of PChome, at a press conference, “The partnership with 7-Eleven is expected to accelerate growth in mobile payment usage in Taiwan, as smartphones and convenience stores have become an integral part of our daily lives.”

When the mobile wallet is combined with a credit card from CTBC, small purchases can be made.

These mobile payments have a maximum limit of NT$1,000 (almost US$32.00). The wallet app allows consumers with a CTBC Bank credit card to buy products at the 7-Eleven stores across the country. All they need to do is have the Pi application running on their smartphones. When the user is ready to make a purchase, a unique barcode is displayed on the smartphone screen. It is then scanned at the checkout counter and the payment is automatically made. The transaction is then verified and completed when the user enters a four digit code.

In the country, cash payments currently make up an estimated 75 percent of all transactions, according to Jan. They are considerably behind the times when compared to the trends in other countries in the Asia Pacific region as well as in many nations around the world. In Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong, for example, cash payments have dropped to about 50 percent.

All credit card information from this mobile wallet is stored remotely, and transactions can be completed only if the four digit code is used. In that way, the mobile security features are in place to stop the device from being used to make purchases by the wrong person. Furthermore, the fact that it can be used only at 7-Eleven and it has a maximum transaction limit further reduces the risk of fraudulent charges.

Much of the future of smartphone based shopping may be designed to cater to this demographic.

The growing number of highly convenient options that are available through m-commerce are starting to become exceptionally appealing to moms, particularly those with very young children and who are struggling to keep up with a hectic schedule.

Retailers that are especially focused on that demographic are starting to make changes to appeal to them.

Among those retailers is Diapers.com. They are currently changing the way that they do business in order to cater to the new m-commerce environment that has become highly popular among their top demographic – moms with babies and toddlers. These retailers are discovering that moms have their smartphones with them no matter where they are and those devices are becoming their go-to option to investigate products, find pictures of rashes to try to identify what is on their baby’s skin, or watching videos to help them to get a cloth diaper technique down-pat.

They are texting pictures to proud grandparents and are using m-commerce to do their shopping.

This has led not only to the convenience of being able to order whatever products they discover that they need, whenever they need it, but research has also shown that when they are overtired, they are also making some rather interesting impulse purchases.

According to the Diapers.com senior vice president of marketing and business development, Michal Geller, “Moms send us stories all the time of nursing her baby at 3 a.m., realizing she’s almost out of diapers or some other essential, placing an order with us through our app, and having the package show up at her door later that day.” Geller added that “Same-day delivery is a game-changer for busy moms,” which is supported by research that has indicated that the diaper market, all on its own, will reach $52 billion worldwide over the next two years.

Though the majority of consumers enjoy taking on mobile shopping at a slower, gradual pace, moms have already established themselves as a considerable demographic that are using this channel on a regular basis to research their purchases, and often to make them, as well.

TechCrunch numbers suggested that m-commerce made up only 1 percent of the complete retail market space in the United States, last year. That said, about half of all Diapers.com purchases were made from smartphones or tablets. That, according to Geller, represents a spike of 25 percent over 2013.