Category: Mobile Commerce

This technique is proving to be highly successful for advertisers targeting shoppers with smartphones.

Major retailers have been boosting their mobile marketing efforts and, among them, coupons directed at smartphone users have been rapidly rising to the top of the priority lists as consumers show that they love them.

These new forms of discounts appear to be taking over where daily deal giants have left off.

Discount coupons are now being worked into mobile marketing on virtually every level. As a result, consumers are now searching for them before they make many different kinds of purchases through their computers and their smartphones and tablets. This is changing the commerce environment, as these shoppers aren’t just limited to the searches when they’re at home on their PCs, but can perform their queries while they’re within the walls of a store.

This has helped to further the use of “showrooming” which has become a central element of mobile marketing.

Though showrooming was once seen as a nightmare for retailers, they are slowly starting to embrace the behavior as an opportunity for mobile marketing. Instead of trying to fight it off entirely, it is a matter of proper use.

According to the RetailMeNot Inc. senior vice president of external affairs, John Faith, “retailers have an opportunity to combat showrooming by reaching those consumers when they are engaged and ready to make a purchase.” While there is no way to stop consumers from showrooming, the trick to effective mobile marketing is to make sure that the end result of the behavior is a purchase from their own store.

Smartphone friendly coupons can help to improve the appeal of shopping within the store as opposed to seeking out an alternative at a competing retailer. Companies are using this form of mobile marketing to embrace the fact that consumers are going to use their devices in store to find a better deal. The key that they can provide is to make sure that this “better deal” remains the in store purchase.

These claims from Faith have been supported by the latest comScore data, which shows that retail is the second most rapidly growing category for mobile marketing with coupons.

Research shows that consumers are beginning to favor mobile payments

Mobile payments, especially bill payments, are becoming increasingly common among consumers throughout the world. More people are beginning to see the merits of mobile payments, considering mobile a more convenient form of commerce than traditional forms of payments. A recently study from Juniper Research, a leading market research firm, suggests that more than 200 million mobile consumers will be making mobile payments for bills by 2017. SmartDebit, a leading Direct Debit bureau, claims that this possible future is well on its way to becoming a reality.

SmartDebit sees a bright future for mobile commerce

SmartDebit has been tracking the growing trend of mobile payments among consumers, especially those in developed markets. A large portion of consumers in these markets make use of their smartphones or tablets in daily life, relying on these devices for social media, entertainment, and other services. As consumers become more involved in the mobile space, new forms of commerce are emerging, offering consumers the opportunity to forgo the use of traditional currencies and adopt a more virtual approach to the matter of commerce.

Bills and payments may be easier to manage on mobile devices

According to SmartDebit, mobile payments account for a significant portion of the payments that are made online by consumers. Transactions are beginning to move away from the PC sector and toward the mobile sector. SmartDebit suggests that consumers prefer to manage their bill payments and other transactions from a mobile device as these transactions can be made anywhere and at any time. As mobile commerce services become more available to consumers, the prevalence of mobile payments is expected to increase.

Mobile commerce gains allure as businesses support it

Investments coming from the retail industry and other sectors of the business world are helping propel mobile payments among consumers. As businesses become more accommodating of mobile commerce, it is becoming more likely that consumers will purchase products using their mobile devices in order to take advantage of the services that companies offer.