Tag: mcommerce

New solution to the mobile commerce security problem could be here

As mobile commerce becomes more popular, questions regarding its security are beginning to be raised. Some consumers have expressed a lack of confidence in mobile payment systems, claiming that they do not do enough to protect their financial information. The Mobile Payments Industry Workgroup believes that a new way to keep consumers information sector is becoming more viable. The organization believes that tokenization could help instill more confidence in mobile commerce among consumers.

Tokenization may be able to make mobile commerce more secure and protect consumer information

Tokenization involves the digitization of financial information. Instead of using these information directly, mobile payment platforms use “tokens” as a way to authenticate a payment from a mobile device. The tokenization process involves the random generation of a substitute value that is meant to replace financial information. Because tokens do not contain actual financial information, they are often considered as a viable way to keep consumers safe when they are participating in mobile commerce.

Security has held back the growth of the mobile commerce field for some time now

Security issues have been a barrier that the mobile commerce space has had trouble overcoming. Over the past few years, high-profile cyber attacks have called into question the overall security of mobile platforms and have reduced consumer confidence in the mobile payments field. Without adequate security, the growth of mobile commerce may be stymied. The use of tokens as a replacement for financial information may help solve this problem in the future.

Tokenization lacks standards and coordination, making it difficult to implement in the mobile commerce field

While tokenization is gaining momentum, there are still many challenges facing its widespread adoption. The most significant of these challenges is the lack of standards and coordination within the mobile payments space. Organizations have yet to agree and work together on how tokenization can be implemented so that tokens can see widespread use. Currently, Visa and MasterCard are the two largest companies that are implementing a tokenization service in order to make mobile payments more secure than they have been in the past.

The majority of online shoppers will interact in some way with brands over tablets and smartphones.

According to the Mobile Commerce Index report published by Branding Brand, online shopping has now crested a vital peak in terms of consumer behaviors over devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The majority of shoppers are headed to m-commerce websites instead of exclusively using the standard web.

The report showed that last month, smartphones and tablets were responsible for more than half – 51 percent – of all online visits to retail websites. Most of these mobile commerce visits came from Apple devices. Comparatively, when looking at the same figures from 2010, only four percent of all online retail visits had been from users of these smaller screen devices. Clearly this represents a meaningful jump in the number of mobile visits and represents a considerable shift in consumer behaviors.

In four years, mobile commerce has started to play a tremendously larger role in online shopping.

According to co-founder of Branding Brand, CEO Chris Mason, “In four short years, our data has tracked the rapid rise of the mobile consumer from a small fraction of users in 2010, to this moment where the majority of online retail visitors now originate via smartphones and tablets.” He also pointed that this “fundamental shift” in the behavior of shoppers from laptop computers to mobile devices has occurred with tremendous speed, the likes of which have never before been seen. It also offers retail the “greatest opportunity” that it has seen since the internet first became commonplace.

Mason stated that it is not only that the majority of visits online are stemming from tablets and smartphones, but that it is specifically mobile devices from Apple that are being used for these purposes. He said that in August, among all smartphone based visits, 61 percent were from iPhones and among all tablet based visits, 81 percent were from iPads.

When looking at previous adoption trends of some of the most recent operating systems released by the device maker, Branding Brand feels that iOS 8 is going to have a meaningful and substantial impact on holiday mobile commerce traffic, and will represent the majority of retail site visits.