Category: Featured News

The Chinese mega-giant company has worked hard to broaden its global reach this year.

Singles Day mobile commerce predictions continue to roll in as the big day approaches on November 11. Alibaba has made tremendous efforts to help to bolster its own successes on this unique Chinese day. At the same time, it is hoping to encourage a growing number of consumers to participate.

That said, most analytics firms have agreed that the participation in Singles Day 2016 should break records.

Millions of people have already been making Singles Day mobile commerce purchases. Alibaba’s CEO, Jack Ma, is hoping to be able to use this m-commerce trend to achieve greater results outside of China, as well. Though Singles Day was invented in China and is celebrated primarily there, Alibaba is looking to use it as a jumping off point.

November 11 is Veterans day in the United States. This makes it unlikely to be a great date to try to carry Singles Day over to this part of the world. That said, the company is hoping to keep the shopping momentum going in the US as the holiday season follows closely on its heels.

Singles Day mobile commerce is a more recent phenomenon that started over desktop in 1993.

The day was created by a group of male Nanjing University students. They decided that 11/11 was the perfect numerical date to represent a celebration of being single. Though it had a slow start and was limited to a small local movement over e-commerce, Alibaba made it big. The company decided to take hold of the movement, which saw growing popularity, and monetize it.

By 2009, the company’s massive e-commerce platforms, Taobao and Tmall, were raking in cash through online purchases. The first Singles Day observance brought an estimated $7 million in sales. Even in a market the size of China, that figure is impressive, though not at all tremendous. By 2010, far more retaielers were on board, including one of the main rivals of Alibaba in China, JD.com.

The next year, Alibaba alone generated $820 million in sales. By last year, that figure had risen to $9.3 billion, credited greatly to Singles Day mobile commerce trends. Since 2012 the sales have been greater than those seen on Cyber Monday in the United States and it is expected that they will be even higher this year.

The vast majority of drivers enjoy using their smartphones to complete transatctions at the pump.

Recent data released by the Carrefour fuel station revealed its gas station mobile payments are highly popular. In fact, the company’s report said that 9 out of every 10 drivers approved of this smartphone based service.

Ninety percent of Spanish customers who had used the mobile service called it “very satisfying.”

Since the summer when the gas station mobile payments option became available at Carrefour in Spain, there have been over 10,000 people who have tried it. Among them, nine out of every ten said that the experience was “very satisfying.”

There are currently 125 Carrefour stations throughout the country and that offer the Pass card holder mobile payment option. This started in June 2016 by way of the Mi Carrefour app. In this way, customers could fuel up and could then get back into their vehicles to pay.

The gas station mobile payments service used geolocation to determine the exact position of the driver.

That allowed the app to recognize the fuel station where the customer was located. The mobile app then prompts the driver to select the supplier, product and amount before starting to pump the gas. Once the car has been fueled up, the customer can confirm the details and simply drive away.

Moreover, the app also occasionally provides discount coupons at the time of payment. This not only gave drivers the chance to save money on their next visit, but it encouraged them to come back and use the mobile payments option again.

According to a statement from the retail chain of gas stations, “The new system has already changed the habits of its users.” It went on to add that “More than 10,000 customers have already tried this option to pay for their fuel stops and nine out of 10 have highlighted this as much more comfortable and safe. Along with pricing and discounts, [these are] the main advantages of Carrefour service stations.”

There are a few companies, such as Starbucks, that have very successfully implemented mobile payments as a transaction option. Carrefour has illustrated the way in which it may be done at fuel stations moving forward.