Category: Mobile Commerce

Successful acquisition of Modest may improve PayPal’s presence in the mobile commerce market

PayPal has announced that it has acquired mobile commerce startup Modest. The Modest platform was designed to make mobile shopping much more convenient, introducing the concept of “contextual commerce,” which involves the use of contextual information in order to engage consumers more effectively. Modest has become a specialist in this aspect of the mobile space and has enabled merchants to sell products in an effective manner on a variety of platforms.

PayPal continues to establish dominance in the mobile payments field

PayPal has established a very strong presence in the mobile commerce market, having been an early pioneer of mobile payments. The company has been making several acquisitions in recent years in order to establish a greater foothold in this space. In 2013, PayPal acquired Braintree, which augmented the company’s position in the mobile commerce space and gave PayPal access to promising new technology that is being used to facilitate transactions.

Contextual commerce could become a powerful tool for PayPal

Regarding the acquisition, PayPal sees a great deal of promise in contextual commerce, believing that it represents a new frontier for the overall commerce space. This frontier is growing quickly and Modest is one of the few companies that have managed to establish a prominent foothold in this growing sector. The acquisition of Modest may allow PayPal to provide better services to merchants that are becoming more interested in engaging mobile consumers, but how PayPal and Modest will work together is not yet clear.

Modest will further augment PayPal’s ability to serve mobile-centric merchants and consumers

Modest allows its users to construct mobile applications or integrate an online store into their existing application. This allows them to sell products through editorial content on blogs or through advertisements and similar content, leveraging the power of “buy” buttons that have begun gaining popularity in the mobile media space. The Modest team will be working with Braintree in order to make mobile payments for PayPal more comprehensive. This represents the first acquisition that PayPal has made since it split from eBay.

As smart mobile devices take their hold on the general population and make shopping easier through apps, mobile commerce is on track to grow 300% faster than traditional eCommerce by 2016.

Coupofy.com, a leading database of online coupon codes has observed mCommerce’s growth firsthand. In 2014 there were 560 million mobile coupon users who redeemed 16 billion coupons, this is expected to rise to 1.05 billion users and 31 billion coupons by 2019!

Data researched by Coupofy suggests that between 2013 and 2016 mobile shopping will have grown 42% compared to regular eCommerce’s 13%, and mobile users will spend a total of $600 billion in 2018, a 400% growth from 2014’s $200 billion.

Denmark, Norway, Sweden, China, and Spain are leading this growth, each seeing a rise of around 50% in mobile shopping popularity between the same time period. Emerging markets like India and Taiwan saw a 60% increase between 2012 and 2014 as mobile devices became more prevalent among their populations.

There has also been a parallel increase in overall mobile internet revenue streams, with more consumer apps being paid for, more businesses adopting mobile based work environments, and subsequently more advertisers and investors spending their budgets on targeting mobile users.

It’s no surprise that leading traditional eCommerce site Amazon.com is leading the charge in mCommerce, with 110% growth in 2014, earning revenues of $16.8 million. They are followed by the likes of Apple ($14 billion), Chinese store Jingdong Mall ($5.8 billion), Google Play ($4.4 billion), and QVC ($1.86 billion).

With increasing mobile device use among lower income consumers in Asia, their huge populations are set to account for almost of half of mobile spending by 2018. Some 68% of all Chinese online consumers say they have already shopped with a smart phone.

The most lucrative mCommerce market is Computer/TV/Multimedia, managing an average order value of $212. Apple Users spend on average $15 more than Android users per transaction, while Tablet users spend $36 more than their smartphone cousins. In the battle of the sexes men spend $24 more than women, but women spend the majority of their money on clothing & accessories while men prefer sports products.

Proving that user friendliness is a key driver of mCommerce growth, mobile users prefer shopping apps to their device’s browser.

This exciting new data can be seen in full with the following Coupofy infographic: http://www.coupofy.com/blog/mobile-commerce-growing-300-faster-than-ecommerce-infographic