Category: Mobile Commerce

A recent study has shown that affluent consumers use their smartphones to make purchasing decisions.

The results of the research performed by Unity Marketing have now been released and are indicating that merchants targeting high-end customers will want to make a priority of their mcommerce offerings, as over 50 percent of these affluent shoppers use their smartphones to make purchasing decisions.

This represents a doubling over 2011, when only 25 percent of this market was using mobile for this reason.

The report, which was entitled Affluents Online, pointed out that businesses with a target market of wealthy consumers had best create mcommerce websites that are engaging, sticky, and robust, in addition to a strong social media strategy and mobile platform. This effort should, says the report, be considered a necessity, and should no longer be thought to be a convenient option.

High-end shoppers have reached a full integration of mcommerce and online activities into their daily lives.

The report showed that the luxurious lifestyle to which these consumers have become accustomed is steadily increasing the use of mcommerce for various parts of the shopping process. This includes everything from informing themselves regarding products, stores, and brands, and actually making the purchases themselves.

The Affluents Online report was based on a study of nearly one thousand wealthy shoppers. The average income of the respondents was $248,900. The researchers discovered that within this group, 98 percent of the respondents had used the internet for shopping purposes and had made at least one purchase within the 3 month term of the study. On average, the online spending for high-end purchases was $3,702. The average time spent shopping was 5 hours every week.

According to the study’s lead researcher and the president of Unity Marketing, Pam Danziger, affluent consumers had not changed their online habits of paying bills, making dining reservations, making travel bookings, researching purchases, and actually buying goods and services over the twelve months previous to the study. The primary – and quite notable – difference was the shift toward mcommerce, as those consumers used their smartphones and tablets instead of their laptops and desktops.

The latest update of the wallet app is designed to make it easier for givers and receivers.

Square Wallet has just announced that its mobile payments app has a new update that will make it simpler for its users to be able to purchase and to exchange gift cards for participating retailers.

This latest update is available for the application designed for both Android and iOS devices.

The announcement stated that Square gift cards can be sent directly from the purchaser’s smartphone or tablet, directly to the recipient. It is reported to function immediately through the electronic receipt that is sent to the purchaser (the giver) from merchants who accept mobile payments through the Square Wallet program.

This is an important step for Square in its gift card mobile payments offerings as it could expand its own use.

The mobile payments app first started its compatibility with gift cards in December of last year, just in time for the heart of the last minute holiday shopping rush. This provided merchants with the ability to offer electronic gift cards to consumers, who could then redeem them using their smartphone and tablet devices.

Participating retailers enjoyed this capability as it gave them the opportunity to offer these gift cards without having to rely on a third party provider for the plastic cards and redemption systems.

This latest update to the mobile payments app allows consumers to both buy the gift cards and send them directly to the recipients through the receipt that they receive electronically from the merchant. The Wallet company feels that this is an important step for providing convenience to the users of the service.

However, there is also a great deal of benefit to be had for Square, itself, if the program should take off. To the company, the true benefit isn’t necessarily convenience as much as the fact that if a recipient would like to be able to receive the gift card, then he or she will be required to download the mobile payments app and then use it when making a purchase. Potentially, this could expand the downloading and the use of the smartphone wallet service as consumers purchase and send gift cards to one another.