Small business payment processing company Electronic Commerce International urges small businesses to pay heed to mobile commerce choices and to embrace mobile payments from customers.

Fighting big business

One thing all small businesses have in common is the need to compete with larger businesses. Small business owners not only have to compete, but they also have to stay up on the latest trends and embrace what may be coming next or be left behind. Analyst at Yankee Group believe that small businesses that start using mobile payments are going to stay relevant. In fact, they believe that this should be an obvious move for small business entities.

Point of sale mobile commerce is predicted to be a huge trend for the year 2013. Smartphone users have options from the likes of Visa and PayPal that allow them to use their smartphone instead of cash or a credit card when making purchases in retail locations. Not everyone believes in the next boom being in mobile commerce, however, with Gartner predicting on 2% saturation in the market for mobile payments. However, having the ability to accept the technology can never be a bad thing as long as costs are low.

Proof is in the pudding

There are some doubts as to the projection of mobile payments in 2013 and beyond, but Jim Anderson, CEO of Electronic Commerce International reports that a full 20 percent of holiday sales for 2012 were done via mobile payments. These payments are no longer a novelty, but are becoming more of the normal way that some prefer to shop. Small businesses that accept mobile commerce payments can stay ahead of the curve.

Companies like Visa, MasterCard, and many financial institutions with large customer bases are said to be the leaders in mobile payments in the coming year. PayPal already has a program in place and is expected to handle 10 billion dollars in transactions in the coming year from mobile payments alone. Others, like Apple, have not added the functionality to new devices which may put a dent in the predictions for mobile commerce in general. However, Apple accounts for a small percentage of smartphone sales leaving a broader segment of users with the ability to start using the technology.

Consumers are familiar with the small, squared QR codes on many products and in advertising, but often do not feel motivated to scan the code with their smartphone. A new company aims to not only change the look of the code, but also to make it more relevant so that consumers are more likely to scan.

Visualead and QR codes

Even if consumers do not know what QR code does, they have probably noticed it in various places like in advertising and on products. Those that have used it have been somewhat disappointed in the results and are reluctant to waste time doing it again. However, Visualead wants to change all of that by making QR more useful and even more profitable for businesses. Most consumers are not even aware of what the code can actually do.

New, improved QR code

Those who have seen QR code know the code has little to be desired in looks. The code is often in black and white and is comprised of small squares. The look is not very appealing. In most uses, these are scanned to give more details about a product or service but they rarely went any further than that. Some offered sales information and some are used for rewards programs, but consumers mostly ignore them. Visualead has devised a new, much more appealing appearance for QR code by blending it with the company logo while still keeping the components needed to make sure the code works.

The trick for Visualead has been to make sure the code and image are appealing without rendering the code useless. They have worked code into artwork and Logos for many well-known companies and even into pictures intended for use on Facebook. Visualead saw more than 300,000 scans in a very short and very limited test run.

Off and running

Investors have taken notice of the success of that limited trail run. Thanks to that success, Visualead has secured substantial backing and has begun the search for advertisers and companies that could benefit from what they have to offer. Not only could the new QR code be good for the typical uses, it could also, through the work of this company, see a consumer from introduction to a product to a final sale, all through a simple QR code scan.