Tag: m-commerce

JC Penny moving up the mobile commerce ladder

The retail industry has come to embrace mobile commerce and several of the largest retailers have been seeing major gains from doing so. J.C. Penny is one such company. Over the past several months, the company has been introducing new mobile commerce services and updating its e-commerce site to become more accommodating of mobile consumers. The retailer has been working its way up the Keynote Mobile Commerce Performance Index, which tracks the m-commerce performance of various companies.

Improvements to e-commerce site boost momentum behind retailer

J.C. Penny has been steadily moving up the index over the past several months due to the success it has been seeing in its various mobile commerce ventures. The retailer has been making improvements to its e-commerce site to improve the site’s load times. Load times are a very important, yet widely ignore aspect of m-commerce in the retail industry. During the 2012 holiday season, retailers were targeted by harsh criticism for the slow load times of their e-commerce sites. Slow load times translated into loss of mobile transactions.

JC Penny breaks into top-10 ranking in terms of mobile commerce

The retailer has broken into the top-10 companies ranked by the Mobile Commerce Performance Index. Office Depot holds the top rank in the index, thanks to the company’s ambitious mobile commerce ventures and the attention it has paid to providing an enjoyable experience through its e-commerce site. J.C. Penny will have to continue making improvements to its own site in order to continue climbing the index.

Retail industry to continue embracing mobile commerce

Mobile commerce has become a very strong force in the retail industry. Early last year, retailers were leery of m-commerce, unconvinced of the prospects that the trend represented. Despite some caution, retailers embraced mobile commerce for the holiday season, and saw mobile transactions far exceed what they had been expecting. Indeed, mobile commerce helped make the 2012 holiday season significantly more prosperous than that of the previous year.

The coffee giant has been dropping hints about expansion into grocery stores.

As mobile payments are still playing a central role in the growth of the transactions occurring at Starbucks, the Seattle based company is now considering various m-commerce opportunities to broaden its strategies, which may include expanding into grocery stores.

The company’s CEO, Howard Schultz, explained a number of the company’s intentions for the future.

Schultz raised these points during a conference call that was held between himself and a number of analysts, in order to discuss the results of the merchants fiscal first quarter. He explained that the ongoing success and growth of the m-commerce business and other mobile initiatives at Starbucks were an important factor in the quarter.

At the moment m-commerce represents 20 percent of the payment card transactions at Starbucks.

In response to one of the m-commerce questions posed by an analyst, Schultz also hinted at the company’s intentions to broaden the card into the areas of grocery and consumer packaged goods. He stated that “Over the next few months or so, we’ll be coming back to you and sharing with you the plans that we have to take advantage of Starbucks products within CPG, and specifically grocery, and leveraging the technology and the advancement of providing value to our customers that are buying Starbucks products in grocery, and leveraging the card.”

That said, he also pointed out that he did not intend to “get into too much specificity” during that phone call. His intention was to express that Starbucks would be offering additional incentives and m-commerce options for consumers to not only purchase their coffee, but also to provide greater depth of the integration into the Starbucks ecosystem through their mobile devices and card loyalty.

While the company has already undergone considerable expansion to its m-commerce, it clearly has no intention of simply sitting back and remaining the same now that their mobile success has been established. They are continually monitoring, innovating, and evolving the opportunities that they present to their customers, from the ability to make mobile payments in the first place, to a growing range of methods that can be used in that light.