Tag: mobile commerce canada

Despite the fact that consumers in Canada want to use their smartphones to buy, it’s not meeting their expectations.

According to the 2015 Holiday Shopping Survey from Accenture, consumers in Canada are actually eager to embrace mobile commerce, but retailers aren’t providing them with the type of experience that meets their expectations.

This means that most Canadian shoppers who would use smartphones are turning to laptops instead.

Canadians aren’t happy with what retailers are offering them by way of mobile commerce, so they are having to fall back on more traditional channels such as laptops and brick and mortars stores throughout the holiday shopping season. This, despite the fact that many shoppers across the country have said that they would be interested in using their devices to buy throughout this most important shopping season of the year. Almost half of the consumers who said they enjoy shopping in-store claimed that they liked it enough to continue their purchasing right through Christmas, itself.

Even though smartphone penetration is high in Canada, only 2 percent of Canadians use mobile commerce for most shopping.

Canada is one of the countries with the highest amount of smartphone use. Still, only 2 percent of the shoppers in that nation will be using their mobile devices for the majority of their holiday purchasing this year. The mobile apps and smartphone optimized websites are not swaying consumers to use their favorite devices for buying.

Among the leading reasons that shoppers in the country are staying away from m-commerce are that they have security concerns (38 percent), they are frustrated with retailers that haven’t mobile optimized their sites (28 percent) and they simply find it too difficult to be able to locate the products they want on retailer sites and apps (18 percent).

According to the Accenture managing director of retail, Robin Sahota, “The way Canadians think about shopping for the holidays is changing, and retailers must offer a more enhanced mobile browsing and shopping experience to drive sales at the busiest time of year.” Sahota went on to say that consumer demand remains high during the 2015 holiday shopping season and over a third of customers intend to spend more this year than last year; it just won’t necessarily be done over mobile commerce.

Mobile Card Reader to expand beyond US

Square, a maker of mobile commerce products, has announced that its Mobile Card Reader will soon be available in Canada. The move aims to engage the growing number of consumers in the country that are showing interest in mobile commerce. The Mobile Card Reader will allow both businesses and consumers to make transactions directly from a smart phone or tablet. This is a physical product, which is available for free, that can be used on both the Android and iOS platforms.

Mobile commerce growing quickly in Canada

Mobile commerce is growing in popularity largely due to the concept that it is more convenient than traditional forms of commerce. Using a smart phone, consumers can pay for goods and services with a simple gesture. For some, this is considered an innovative way to pay for things. For others, it is just another way to make purchases. Whatever the reaction from consumers is, their interest in mobile commerce is growing, as is the demand for platforms that will allow them to make purchases using their mobiles devices.

Device accounts for $8 billion in transactions each year

Though the Mobile Card Reader is free, Square is still able to make a profit off the platform. The company charges a 2.75% fee each time a transaction is made using the platform. According to Square, the platform facilitates more than $8 billion transactions every year. Considering that Square has only operated in the U.S., until very recently, the platform has proven itself to be quite successful. Bringing the Mobile Card Reader into the Canadian market will be Square’s first time expanding beyond the U.S.

Device allows smart phones to become mobile payment platform without native NFC technology

The progress and adoption of mobile commerce is being heavily delayed by the availability of NFC-enabled mobile devices. The low supply of these devices means that consumer engagement in mobile commerce is limited. The Mobile Card Reader solves this problem by being equipped with its own NFC chip, allowing any smart phone or tablet to become a viable mobile payment platform.