Report predicts promising year for mobile commerce platforms

Mobile commerce may find growth in 2014

Ovum, a leading market research firm, has released a new report concerning the potential growth of mobile commerce in 2014. Over the past few years, consumers and businesses alike have become quite serious when it comes to mobile shopping and payments in general. The past year has shown that retailers are becoming quite aggressive when it comes to engaging mobile consumers and consumers and becoming much more reliant on their smartphones and tablets than they were in the past. This has created a great deal of promise for 2014 in terms of mobile commerce.

Report highlights consumer support of platforms coming from banks

According to the firm’s report, consumers are becoming more likely to trust mobile commerce platforms that are associated with a financial institution. Banks and credit firms that release such platform tend to apply their own security standards to these services, thereby alleviating some o f the security concerns that consumers have regarding their financial information. According to Ovum, 43% of consumers prefer banks as their mobile payment service provider, with 13% favoring credit card companies.

2014 may be a big year for NFC technology

Ovum’s report predicts that 2014 will be the year where NFC technology finally becomes mainstream. This technology has made up the backbone of many mobile commerce platforms, but has been losing popularity due to security concerns. NFC is quickly becoming a powerful marketing, entertainment, and data sharing tool, but Ovum suggests that its place in mobile commerce will begin to become more pronounced throughout the year as more NFC-enabled devices become available to consumers.

Bluetooth and location-based technologies may become more prominent in 2014

Apart from NFC, Bluetooth is expected to find its way to more mobile commerce platforms in the coming year. Many companies that have invested in the mobile commerce sector have opted to support Bluetooth as an alternative to NFC. Bluetooth has allowed more consumers to participate in mobile commerce because it is far more available to a wider range of mobile devices. Ovum’s report also suggests that location-based technologies will begin to play a much larger role in 2014 than they had in the past.