Retail industry begins devoting more resources to mobile commerce

The retail industry is beginning to respond to the gargantuan success of the mobile commerce sector, especially in the wake of the results of the 2012 holiday shopping season. During the 2012 holidays, more consumers made use of their mobile devices to shop for and purchase products than they ever had before, giving the retail industry a glimpse of the gains they could see by throwing more support behind mobile commerce. Shop.org and Forrester Research have released a new survey that highlights the view retailers have regarding mobile commerce in 2013.

State of Retailing survey highlights the work of retailers

The survey, called “State of Retailing,” shows that more retailers are beginning to shift their resources to better serve mobile consumers. More than 51% of the retailers surveyed noted that one of their top priorities was making sure that their websites and services were optimized to be used on mobile platforms, such as smart phones and tablets. Another 43% identified tablets and other mobile devices as one of their most important priorities, hoping to increase the traffic and commerce they see through these platforms throughout 2013.

Online traffic spikes in 2012

Retailers are reporting that they are seeing more traffic from online sources. This traffic grew in 2012 and is expected to continue gaining momentum well into 2013. Approximately 27% of the retailers surveyed noted that they have major overhauls of their websites planned in the coming year. These retailers are focusing on making their websites more accommodating for mobile consumers.

Retailers must be wary of pitfalls surrounding mobile commerce

While there are certainly major opportunities for retailers in the realm of mobile commerce, it is important for these companies to take time to identify the potential obstacles they may face in catering to mobile consumers. Embracing mobile commerce is a multi-faceted endeavor, and many retailers will likely begin feeling pressure to facilitate actual payments from mobile devices in their physical stores. Moreover, the more companies focus on mobile commerce, especially in the digital space, the less traffic their physical stores may see in the future.

The new service that could result may give a considerable advantage over competition like Square.

Two of the largest players in mobile payments – PayPal and NCR – have just announced that they will be working together in a major new deal that may help to create a significant advantage for themselves within this marketplace.

This should help PayPal to gain a notable edge when compared to its competition.

This could be unwelcome news for Square, which is the primary competition within that sector. The assistance of the point of sale company, NCR, could give PayPal a great deal of additional weight. The agreement will bring mobile payments from PayPal into the apps and services from NCR that are commonly used by retailers and restaurants.

It will begin by simply adding a PayPal mobile payments checkout option within NCR’s Pay application.

This will provide restaurant patrons with the opportunity to use their smartphones to use PayPal to pay for their meals. However, the services will expand from there over time. Soon, there will be a PayPal dining experience in which it will be able to use its own mobile payments apps whenever a customer checks in at a participating NCR location.

Though this may sound like a light deal at first – particularly as PayPal has already recently announced that there are 23 retailers currently using its own point of sale solutions – this could end up being one of the mobile payments company’s most important developments as it seeks to lead its industry. NCR is not in any way new, having been established 128 years ago. It currently powers the POS for half of all of the major retail chains, as well as 38 percent of the leading 100 American restaurants. This will provide PayPal with a tremendous amount of reach as they gain access to millions of customers through NCR.

That said, NCR isn’t working exclusively with PayPal for mobile payments. It has also created a deal with Google Wallet and has indicated that it is available for agreements with other providers, as well.

Beyond mobile payments, the PayPal and NCR deal will also give consumers access to special offers, coupons, and other types of discount deals, starting in gas stations, restaurants, and small convenience stores, and broadening from there.