Tag: india mobile commerce

MobiKwik partners with WHSmith India to make mobile payments possible in physical stores

MobiKwik, a mobile payment firm, has partnered with WHSmith India in order to facilitate mobile transactions at physical stores. Mobile commerce has taken off in India, where many consumers are showing favor for shopping for and purchasing products with their smartphones and tablets. The majority of this shopping is happening online, but demand for in-store support of mobile payments has been on the rise in recent years. As such, mobile wallets are becoming more popular and retailers are feeling the pressure to accommodate consumer interests.

Firm envisions a future where all retailers embrace mobile commerce

MobiKwik is one of the more prominent mobile payments firms in India. The company has enabled some 17 million users to make mobile transactions with more than 50,000 retailers in India. MobiKwik is currently working to expand its offline presence, supporting retailers in embracing mobile consumers in their physical stores. Part of doing this involves enabling retailers to accept payments being made by a mobile device.

WHSmith India stores will function as MobiKwik Nodes

Through its partnership with MobiKwik, WHSmith will become a “MobiKwik Node.” This means that the retailer’s physical stores will accept mobile payments and they will also serve as a place where consumers can add funds to their mobile wallets. According to MobiKwik, approximately only 0.7% of the 40 million small-to-medium enterprises in India currently accept electronic payments. The firm hopes to change this in the future by enabling these organizations to engage mobile consumers more effectively.

Mobile commerce likely to accelerate in India as more consumers make use of services that facilitate payments

Mobile payments are expected to become increasingly common in India in the coming years. The country already represents one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world and is home to a thriving mobile population. Firms like MobiKwik have promising opportunities ahead of them, especially as smartphone penetration continues to accelerate and more consumers become comfortable with the concept of mobile commerce and the convenience that it represents.

The South Korean electronics company is expecting to double its share in the country in 2015.

LG Electronics has announced that it now expects that its mobile phone market share will double in size by the end of the year when it comes to the penetration that it has achieved within India.

This will allow the company’s share of the smartphone market to reach 10 percent by the close of the year.

According to Deepak Jasrotia, the head of LG Electronics’ India business, “Our target is to double the market share in the mobile phone segment to 10 percent from the current four to five percent.” This, following the launch of the LG G4 high end smartphone in Mumbai, last week. At that time, it also said that it has every expectation that it will be able to meet those projected targets, particularly upon examining the rapid rise of smartphone adoption within India, at the moment.

India is the only mobile phone market where smartphone shipments are expected to increase over the next few years.

This, according to the Worldwide Quarterly mobile Phone Tracker results from the International Data Corporation (IDC). Clearly, India is an extremely important marketplace for this type of mobile technology, at the moment, as the rest of the world is expecting its smartphone shipments to level off or even reduce in their growth figures.

At the moment, it is estimated that the smartphone shipments in India will be rising to 13.29 percent by 2019. This, in comparison with the 2015 figures, which is forecasted to be 7.61 percent.

On LG’s side of things, the company believes that it will be selling more than 100,000 units of its LG G4 in India alone, this year, said Jasrotia. The launch price of that particular device is Rs. 51,000 (approx US $800). That said, the electronics manufacturer offers devices that start at a much lower rate of Rs 10,000 (about US $155), which will be an important factor in growing its mobile phone market share. Of all of the devices that LG sells in India, Jasrotia pointed out that mobile is currently making up about 10 percent of its total revenues, there.