Tag: mobile apps

Future of mobile shopping and payments may lie with messaging apps

Mobile messaging applications may be the future of mobile commerce. A growing number of these apps are being released and many of them are being designed with mobile payments in mind. In some cases, these apps are meant to make mobile shopping more social, allowing users to share their purchases with those they have on their contact lists. Most of these apps simply aim to satisfy the demand coming from consumers who want their applications to do more than one simple task, such as messaging.

Line is set to break into the Taiwanese market with the help of Uitox

A new messaging application from Japan is set to take mobile commerce to a new level in Taiwan. The app is called Line and it’s developer of the same name has partnered with Uitox, an e-commerce organization, to bring Line into the Taiwanese market. Uitox is set to launch a mobile payments pilot program on June 10 that will highlight the use of Line. Numerous brands are already slated to participate in the campaign, and Line will even sell its own branded merchandise through the pilot project.

Line boasts of 420 million registered users globally

Line currently boasts of more than 420 million registered users throughout the world. The application has managed to acquire a great deal of support through its focus on flash sales. Last year, Line started introducing its own brand of flash sales to Thailand, where it found promising success. Taiwan will be the second country in which Line introduces its flash sales.

Line will have to continue competing with more popular mobile commerce platforms in order to find higher levels of success

While Line has managed to generate a great deal of success, it will still need to compete with other applications that are forming a powerful position in the mobile commerce field. WeChat is currently one of the largest messaging applications that has successfully established itself as a mobile payments platform as well. Newly released applications also offer some competition as consumers are often on the lookout for new services that could offer refreshing experiences.

Smartphones have become the standard in smaller companies and are generating $65 billion in annual savings.

It has now reached the point that nearly all small businesses are using mobile technology in the form of smartphones, with 94 percent claiming that they are using them, this year, which is still a notable increase over the high level that was recorded last year, at 85 percent.

Millions of small to midsized businesses (SMBs) across the United States are taking advantage of the tech.

These SMBs are using the smartphones to be able to save a considerable amount of time and money. A recent survey which was commissioned jointly by AT&T and by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) estimated that every year this mobile technology is saving SMBs $67.5 billion. This includes not only the use of the mobile devices, themselves, but also tablets and apps.

The survey looked into both the time and the money saved by the use of mobile technology.

Among all of the different types of mobile tech, smartphones alone are saving small to midsized businesses the largest amount of money ($32.3 billion) and even time (at an estimated 1.24 billion hours). Tablets came in second, with a savings of $19.6 billion per year and an estimated 754.2 million hours. Mobile apps are saving $15.6 billion per year and an estimated 599.5 million hours.

According to Karen Kerrigan, the CEO and council president of SBE, “Clearly, we are at a point where entrepreneurs now look first to communications technologies and innovations for solutions to improve productivity, cut costs and better manage and engage with customers.” She added that this is money and time that can all be redirected back into the business and improving market innovation while boosting sales.

The report on the study showed that over half of all small businesses say that they are currently using mobile technology in the form of apps. Among those who are using applications, 91 percent say that they use them for time savings, while two out of every three claim that money is being saved in this way.