Category: Featured News

Report highlights the promising growth that mobile commerce is seeing

Mobile commerce say a great deal of success during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to a recent report from Adobe. The report shows that many consumers took to their smartphones and tablets to make purchases on Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. These consumers found mobile shopping to be more convenient, with many being able to avoid large crowds because they could shop online. Those visiting physical stores were also able to make convenient purchases, with mobile payments making the checkout process more convenient.

Consumers are spending more money through their smartphones and tablets

The report from Adobe shows that some $11 billion in online sales were reported from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. This represents a 15% increase over the online sales that were seen last year over the same days. Notably, Black Friday stood out as a major success for the mobile commerce sector, with consumers taking advantage of the variety of deals being offered by retailers that were interested in engaging mobile consumers. While mobile commerce saw a significant boost during the holiday shopping weekend, the sector also saw an increase in fraud.

Fraud continues to be a major problem for those participating in mobile commerce

Another report from iovation, a device intelligence and fraud prevention firm, shows that online retail transactions from Black Friday through Cyber Monday grew by 43% over what they had been in 2014. The firm also found that fraud was a significant issue for the mobile commerce space. According to the firm’s report, approximately 1.06% of all online transactions made from Black Friday to Cyber Monday were fraudulent. Approximately .62% of these fraudulent transactions came from mobile devices.

Retailers are beginning to fight fraud more aggressively

Consumers have shown a great deal of interest in mobile commerce, and more retailers are beginning to engage the mobile space as a result. The fraud problem, however, has made consumers somewhat wary of using their smartphones and tablets to purchase products online and in physical stores. Retailers are becoming more adept at combating fraud, however, which is creating a better environment for mobile commerce as a whole.

The company is aiming to use quick response codes to make tech data easier to obtain.

Nortek Global HVAC recently announced that it would be adding QR codes to its product labels in order to make it easier for contractors to be able to obtain the tech literature for a specific piece of equipment.

The goal of using these barcodes in this way is to make troubleshooting faster and easier for service contractors.

The new label with the QR codes links the contractor directly to the tech literature specific to the product in question. In order to use the quick response codes, the contractor must simply use a smartphone to scan the barcode printed on the equipment’s label. The smartphone is directed to the Nortek website, where a page will be displayed with the information about that specific equipment model. Among the types of information that are available to the contractor are the installation instructions, lists of replacement parts, charging charts, wiring diagrams, and other important and practical troubleshooting information.

In this way, contractors can scan QR codes and rapidly obtain information instead of needing to phone the company.

According to the Nortek Global HVAC director of warranty and technical services, Matt Lattanzi, “Contractors call us for technical help and many times the answers are in the literature.” Lattanzi also added that “Having a way to quickly scan a code on the product and find the necessary documents can reduce lost time on the job and help ensure the equipment is installed and/or serviced correctly.”

By using the QRcode, a number of slower steps can be skipped so the contractor can complete his or her work with greater effectiveness and efficiency. Moreover, beyond the implementation of the barcodes on the product labels, Nortek has also gone to the extent of providing contractors with support through an iPad app for in-home sales, weekly video tips, mobile load calculation tools, as well as support for using and managing a Facebook business page.

The QR codes were implemented by Nortek on its labels for split-system air conditioners, but it intends to add the barcodes to additional products in the future.