Category: Mobile Commerce

Firm raises funds to help power mobile commerce expansion

Mobile commerce firm Clutch has raised $5.3 million during its Series B funding initiative. The company focuses on providing innovative mobile commerce services through the combination of electronic gifting, loyalty programs, and merchant rewards. The firm’s services have become relatively popular throughout the mobile commerce sector, especially among businesses that are interested in engaging consumers with smartphones and tablets. Part of the appeal of Clutch has to do with the company’s ability to combine several services into a singular platform, making mobile commerce somewhat more approachable.

Funding to help Clutch add new features and perfect those that already exist

Safeguard Scientifics, a capital and operational support provider for health care and technology companies, contributed the majority share of Clutch’s latest round of funding. The funds raised will be used to make progress in the development of Clutch’s mobile commerce platform. New business-to-business features will be introduced into the platform to make it more accommodating of the needs that businesses have when it comes to mobile commerce.

Clutch acquires loyalty program provider ProfitPoint

Clutch is not only raising money to support its mobile commerce platform, of course, as the company recently announced its acquisition of ProfitPoint, a provider of loyalty and gift programs. The acquisition is expected to help Clutch further develop its own loyalty programs and make them more valuable to businesses. Clutch has also acquired Sqoot, an aggregator of deals being offered by Goupon, Living Social, and Yelp.

Loyalty programs becoming more important as mobile commerce grows

According to Clutch, retailers that utilize loyalty programs experience a 46% increase in purchases coming from consumers. With more consumers beginning to show serious interest in mobile commerce, loyalty programs are becoming more important for retailers. These programs provide retailers with a way to ensure consumers continue purchasing products from them rather than their competitors. While mobile commerce allows consumers to be very flexible in their shopping, those using their smartphones and tablets to purchase products have shown a tendency to stick to a single retailer or a small group of retailers that can provide everything they need.

The smartphone wallet joint venture rumors have been flying and finally an announcement has come.

Though Isis has not seen a tremendous amount of use in its two pilot cities of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Dallas, Texas, it has now reached the point that this mobile payments solution will be expanding to the nationwide scene.

This digital wallet is the result of the efforts of Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile U.S., and AT&T Mobility.

The rumor mill had been closely following this project, as the mobile payments market continues to become increasingly swamped with players, and has been waiting for the solution to be rolled out across the United States. Finally, the news has come and the companies involved in the joint venture have confirmed that it will be available across the country before the year is done.

The mobile payments wallet will be available to more customers and in more locations.

The Isis mobile payments solution has undergone a lengthy trial period for three quarters of a year. According to the chief executive officer of Isis, Michael Abbott, “Over the past nine months, we have proven the power of an open platform, creating an ecosystem of literally hundreds of partners dedicated to making mobile commerce a reality.”

Abbott went on to talk about this mobile payments project, saying that “As part of our commitment to consumers, we are incorporating feedback from our pilots into the next generation of the Isis Mobile Wallet as we prepare for national availability later this year.”

In order to use the Isis mobile payments wallet, consumers must have a smartphone with NFC technology. This is the tech that is required for paying, redeeming coupons, and using loyalty cards simply by tapping their smartphones against a reader device. At the moment, only a small percentage of smartphones are equipped with the necessary technology. It is, however, slowly growing in popularity among the manufacturers.

Currently, the only devices that are compatible with the Isis mobile payments are Android based, but the company has stated that it will soon make the digital wallet ready for iOS, Windows Phone 8, and BlackBerry 10.