Category: Mobile Commerce

Social network begins showing interest in mobile commerce

Facebook may be stepping into the mobile commerce arena as it begins testing its own mobile payments system. The social network has been looking for ways to improve its standing in the stock market and provide more value to the services it provides to consumers. Recently, this endeavor has manifested itself through the social network’s stronger focus on mobile marketing and providing analytic services to advertisers. Now, however, Facebook may be switching gears to embrace a trend that has been growing in popularity among consumers recently: Mobile commerce.

New service aims to streamline mobile payments

The social network is currently testing a service that will function as a companion to PayPal’s e-commerce services. The current stage of the test involves Facebook’s payments service to store and fill-in a consumer’s financial information in order to streamline the process of making a purchase using a mobile device. The service is meant to use this information to make the purchase of Facebook Gifts more convenient. The service is also meant to streamline in-game purchases for the various games that are supported on the social network.

Facebook won’t compete with PayPal or others

While Facebook is showing some interest in mobile commerce, the social network does not yet have any intention of competing with companies like PayPal in this sector. Currently, Facebook is primarily interested in making mobile payments easier for consumers. Considering that a fair amount of the social network’s users access the platform from their smartphones and tablets, the company is keen to ensure that these users are able to use the social network to their benefit.

New service could be a benefit to Facebook

This new initiative could be a major benefit for Facebook. It will allow the social network to determine whether ad-clicks turn into sales, which could provide the company with a stronger standing in the marketing sector. If this is the case, it could also meant significant return-on-investment for the advertisers that have been using the social network to reach out to and connect with its users.

Retailers have been working hard to encourage consumers to buy over their smartphones but still have barriers.

Recent reports are all consistently showing that as much as shopping via smartphones and tablets is growing, and retailers are pouring their resources into boosting their experience over these devices, mobile security remains a concern among consumers that is causing them to hold back from the true potential of the channel.

The focus, seems to be not only an engaging experience, but showing that it is a safe one, too.

Among the most recent reports, one has suggested that retailers are going to need to make a greater effort to convince shoppers that they have high enough mobile security to make it worthwhile to conduct their shopping activities safely online by way of their commerce sites. This could present a considerable challenge as this is a very new environment and many consumers hesitate when they are still feeling more comfortable using desktops and laptops.

The latest report has found that mobile security is one of the leading issues that causes shopping cart abandonment.

The study was conducted by Jumio, which determined that among all m-commerce users, 65 percent will abandon their carts before completing their transactions. More than half of those people have done so because they have concerns over the mobile security that is involved in providing their sensitive data over their smartphones and tablets in order to complete a purchase.

One of the leading perceptions that remains regarding the use of smartphones and tablets is that there are serious mobile security issues related to them and that they are more dangerous to use in terms of the safety of sensitive data such as personal and financial information, than a traditional e-commerce platform over a desktop or laptop computer.

The same report also pointed out that 47 percent of its respondents who would have been willing to overlook certain mobile security worries struggled with the length of time that it took to load and complete the checkout experience over their smartphone or tablet. Over a quarter of the participants said that they had tried to make a purchase but that for some technical reason, they discovered that their order could not be placed.