Tag: mobile apps

Mobile shopping takes off with shift in retail habits

| July 24, 2015

This, according to the results of a recent study that was conducted by Synchrony Financial.

Consumer financial services firm, Synchrony Financial has released the results of its 2015 Digital Study that underscores the importance of mobile shopping strategies for retailers that want to boost their customer experience and engage their shoppers.

The survey was held throughout March and April of this year, with the participation of 7,000 of the firm’s customers.

The customers were selected at random from throughout the country. The purpose was to build a better understanding of the way in which customers view mobile shopping in the retail experience, and what they expect from the offerings over their smartphones and tablets. There were a number of key findings that identified some important trends to retailers that will be keeping a focus on the tech expectations of consumers.

Among the primary findings of the study was that nearly 50 percent of respondents use mobile shopping.

Survey - Mobile ShoppingNearly one third of the survey participants will purchase a product after having seen it on social media. Moreover, it was also pointed out that about the same number of respondents to the survey said that the receipt of offers via text would push them to make an incremental shopping visit. Additional value offers, such as loyalty programs, free shipping, and personalized offers also proved to continue to be important to the people who completed this survey.

The report indicated that consumers are using mobile technology to an increasing degree. Adoption of m-commerce has been rising among central segments of the population. Of all of the study’s respondents, 45 percent said that at some point this year, they had already used a smartphone or tablet in order to complete a task that is related to shopping, such as reading or leaving reviews, researching a product, brand or store, sharing information over social media, or actually making a purchase. This represented an increase of 4 percent over the figure from 2014. When compared to 2013, it represented an increase of 9 percent.

As mobile shopping habits continue to be an increasingly important trend among all mobile devices and all age groups of shoppers, the report showed that retail habits are also continuing to change.

Canadian banks rush ahead with mobile payments, leaving consumers behind

| July 20, 2015

Despite the fact that people residing in Canada are slow to accept the tech, banks are still diving in.

In Canada, the major banks are working hard to implement the technology that is required to allow consumers to be able to adopt mobile payments, but at the same time, less than a quarter of the adults in the country can actually use it.

A recent whitepaper has stated that the largest six banks in the country are pouring their efforts into a small market.

The banks are highly enthusiastic about creating mobile payments apps and services that will allow people to use their smartphones instead of debit and credit cards when they make a purchase in a store. That said, the whitepaper pointed out that only under 25 percent of consumers in Canada actually have all of the requirements that are needed to actually use that technology.

This implies that Canadian banks are moving ahead with mobile payments much more quickly than consumers can actually keep up.

Canada Mobile PaymentsFinancial institutions in the country consider mobile wallets that will be used for smaller purchases – particularly when it comes to those developed through the use of NFC technology – to be a key component of their development over coming years. They believe that this will be integral to being able to satisfy what they think is a powerful consumer demand. They also feel that it is vital to take on a technologically-forward position, said the whitepaper, which was created in conjunction with the big six banks in Canada.

Some of the large banks view the creation of their own mobile wallet app as a vital component in defending themselves against the intrusion of technology giants such as Google and Apple, which are already moving into this space as financial players. They are hoping to be able to establish themselves as the natural choice for consumers, early on, before the technology giants have the opportunity to sink their claws into this marketplace and draw consumers away from the banks.

So far, services such Google Wallet and Apple Pay have been launching in a slowly growing number of countries, with the iOS version being seen as the primary threat. Apple’s mobile payments platform has already launched in the United States and it has just stepped into the United Kingdom. Many feel that it will make its way into Canada before the end of the year.