Category: Mobile Payments

Mobile payments firm acquires Near.in in India

| December 10, 2015

Paytm could improve its standing in the mobile payments space through latest acquisition

Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments firm, has announced the successful acquisition of Near.in, a local services startup. Paytm acquired the company for $2 million and believes that the acquisition will improve the company’s already considerably strong position in the mobile commerce space. Near.in is capable of connecting consumers in four of India’s large cities with various verified businesses, ranging from home repair companies to fortune tellers. Paytm believes that the services provided by Near.in will ensure more consumers are exposed to mobile payments.

Paytm is finding significant success in the mobile space

Paytm has raised some $700 million in funding from a wide range of investors, including China’s Alibaba, which has also established a major lead in the mobile payments space. Paytm processes more than 100 million online transactions every month and has begun expanding its business operations in order to connect with more consumers living in India. Mobile payments are becoming a powerful force in India’s retail space, with more companies looking to engage the growing number of mobile consumers in the country.

Firm is working with numerous companies to make mobile payments more accessible

Mobile Payments AcquisitionIn the past two months, Paytm has been making investments in various companies in order to make mobile payments more accessible. The company has invested in Jugnoo, a startup that makes use of rickshaws to make deliveries to consumers. Paytm is also working with BookMyShow and Zomato in order to support services like food deliveries and restaurant reservations. These services are available to mobile consumers, who can use their devices to make mobile payments.

Paytm will have to overcome security challenges to ensure the success of mobile payments

Paytm is expected to see more success in the mobile payments space as it begins working with a wider range of businesses. The demand for mobile payments services is growing quickly and Paytm is ideally suited to address the needs of mobile consumers. One of the challenges the company will have to overcome to ensure continued success, however, is security. Mobile payments has become rife with fraud, which has left many consumers exposed to exploitation.

Mobile commerce is finding success during the holidays

| December 9, 2015

Report highlights the promising growth that mobile commerce is seeing

Mobile commerce say a great deal of success during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to a recent report from Adobe. The report shows that many consumers took to their smartphones and tablets to make purchases on Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. These consumers found mobile shopping to be more convenient, with many being able to avoid large crowds because they could shop online. Those visiting physical stores were also able to make convenient purchases, with mobile payments making the checkout process more convenient.

Consumers are spending more money through their smartphones and tablets

The report from Adobe shows that some $11 billion in online sales were reported from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. This represents a 15% increase over the online sales that were seen last year over the same days. Notably, Black Friday stood out as a major success for the mobile commerce sector, with consumers taking advantage of the variety of deals being offered by retailers that were interested in engaging mobile consumers. While mobile commerce saw a significant boost during the holiday shopping weekend, the sector also saw an increase in fraud.

Fraud continues to be a major problem for those participating in mobile commerce

Mobile Commerce Report - holiday shoppingAnother report from iovation, a device intelligence and fraud prevention firm, shows that online retail transactions from Black Friday through Cyber Monday grew by 43% over what they had been in 2014. The firm also found that fraud was a significant issue for the mobile commerce space. According to the firm’s report, approximately 1.06% of all online transactions made from Black Friday to Cyber Monday were fraudulent. Approximately .62% of these fraudulent transactions came from mobile devices.

Retailers are beginning to fight fraud more aggressively

Consumers have shown a great deal of interest in mobile commerce, and more retailers are beginning to engage the mobile space as a result. The fraud problem, however, has made consumers somewhat wary of using their smartphones and tablets to purchase products online and in physical stores. Retailers are becoming more adept at combating fraud, however, which is creating a better environment for mobile commerce as a whole.