Mobile Commerce News

Category: Featured News

OLO receives significant backing from PayPal

Stephen | February 2, 2013

OLO brings new mobile commerce service to restaurants

OLO, a relatively new mobile commerce engine designed for restaurants, has announced that it has received a sizeable investment from PayPal, one of the foremost advocates of mobile commerce. OLO has been experiencing rapid growth in recent months. The company, which has been receiving a great deal of attention from numerous investors, has been aggressively hiring and scaling up its operations to establish a firm presence in the mobile commerce market this year. The investment from PayPal is expected to help in this endeavor.

OLO service provides restaurants with consumer friendly services

The OLO service allows restaurants to accept payments and orders from consumers using a simple mobile application. These orders can be placed before a customer even arrives at the restaurant, removing the wait time that some popular restaurants are regularly associated with. Hundred of restaurants make use of the OLO engine and many of these establishments have reported receiving more than 50% of their digital orders through mobile devices.

PayPal may have a role to play in the future of OLO

OLO is designed to be flexible, accommodating the needs of a particular restaurant. To this end, the service allows restaurants to accept forms of payment they are most comfortable with. OLO itself is capable of facilitating payments from all major credit card providers, as well as stored-value cards and mobile wallet platforms. PayPal’s investment into the service is likely to ensure that the company has a place in OLO’s future operations.

PayPal continues looking for ambitious and innovative mobile commerce solutions

PayPal is one of the companies that has been heavily investing in mobile commerce, as well as one of the few looking for an alternative to NFC technology. NFC has become a very popular engine for mobile commerce, but PayPal has concerns regarding the safety and viability of the technology. As such, the company has been looking elsewhere to satisfy its interest in mobile commerce, and services like OLO are among those that have attracted the interest of PayPal in recent months.

Mobile commerce is a big hit with Bigcommerce

JT | February 2, 2013

Bigcommerce marks the increasingly popularity of mobile commerce

Mobile commerce has been a very beneficial force for Bigcommerce, an e-commerce platform catering to small businesses. The platform represents some 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses around the world, many of which have become increasingly interested in engaging mobile consumers. To this end, these companies have been adopting new mobile commerce services. As these companies put more focus on mobile commerce, consumers are becoming more apt to use their mobile devices to shop and purchase products, according to Bigcommerce.

10.2% of 2012 sales were made from mobile devices

Bigcommerce notes that 10.2% of all sales for the companies it represents are coming from smart phones and tablets. This accounts for approximately $84 million in online sales throughout 2012. Sales make through Apple devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, registered $46 million, representing 84% of all online mobile sales during 2012. Bigcommerce notes that the Android platform saw $13 million in sales during the same time period.

Retail industry continues to be a strong supporter of mobile commerce

Mobile commerce has become especially popular within the retail industry. Many retailers had been made aware of the potential gains they could see through engaging mobile consumer several years ago, hence the nearly universal adoption of mobile marketing. Mobile commerce could further these benefits, especially as consumers become more interested in using the smart phones and tablets to shop.

Android may be more plentiful, but not necessarily popular for mobile commerce

The information from Bigcommerce conflicts with information concerning smart phone ownership. Android devices account for 52% of all smart phones in use, while iPhone represent roughly 34%. Bigcommerce notes that the higher number of Android devices available is due to the fact that the platform is licensed to many groups, while the iOS platform is almost entirely exclusive to Apple. Even though the Android seems to be more prevalent, that does not mean that it is more popular in terms of mobile commerce.