Tag: mobile commerce

Research shows that consumers are beginning to favor mobile payments

Mobile payments, especially bill payments, are becoming increasingly common among consumers throughout the world. More people are beginning to see the merits of mobile payments, considering mobile a more convenient form of commerce than traditional forms of payments. A recently study from Juniper Research, a leading market research firm, suggests that more than 200 million mobile consumers will be making mobile payments for bills by 2017. SmartDebit, a leading Direct Debit bureau, claims that this possible future is well on its way to becoming a reality.

SmartDebit sees a bright future for mobile commerce

SmartDebit has been tracking the growing trend of mobile payments among consumers, especially those in developed markets. A large portion of consumers in these markets make use of their smartphones or tablets in daily life, relying on these devices for social media, entertainment, and other services. As consumers become more involved in the mobile space, new forms of commerce are emerging, offering consumers the opportunity to forgo the use of traditional currencies and adopt a more virtual approach to the matter of commerce.

Bills and payments may be easier to manage on mobile devices

According to SmartDebit, mobile payments account for a significant portion of the payments that are made online by consumers. Transactions are beginning to move away from the PC sector and toward the mobile sector. SmartDebit suggests that consumers prefer to manage their bill payments and other transactions from a mobile device as these transactions can be made anywhere and at any time. As mobile commerce services become more available to consumers, the prevalence of mobile payments is expected to increase.

Mobile commerce gains allure as businesses support it

Investments coming from the retail industry and other sectors of the business world are helping propel mobile payments among consumers. As businesses become more accommodating of mobile commerce, it is becoming more likely that consumers will purchase products using their mobile devices in order to take advantage of the services that companies offer.

The promise for discounts at the pump over smartphones is drawing consumers into stores.

A new study has just revealed that, through the use of mobile marketing, motorists can be made to make additional in store purchases when they are pumping gas.

Research performed in Canada showed that 10 to 30 percent of consumers redeemed coupons in convenience store chains.

The mobile coupon was from U.S. National Oil and Gas Inc. It was distributed through a mobile marketing campaign to encourage drivers who were pumping gas at one of their stations to head inside the adjoining convenience stores in order to buy additional products. This, according to the owner and director of the company, Trent Moser.

The company had been using iSign Media Corp. technology for its mobile marketing campaign.

The mobile marketing strategy involved the use of the technology – which distributes the coupons to consumers who enter within a radius of approximately 300 feet of an antenna – to draw gas pumping customers into the store by sending them a coupon over their smartphones for a discount on their gas, but only if they head into the store to pay for the purchase. The coupons were sent just as the consumer would pull up to the location, so that they would already have it right before they went to pump the gas.

There were over 150,000 customers who received the coupons from National Oil within a period of three months. Within that timeframe, there were enough of the coupons redeemed that National Oil felt that it justified rolling out the iSign technology based offers to 200 of its stores across the company, said Moser.

Moser would not reveal the actual response rate that was achieved through the mobile marketing campaign.

A similar campaign was held by a chain of gas station and convenience stores in Canada, which has found that the response rate from the mobile marketing strategy’s coupons was between 10 percent and 30 percent among the million consumers who receive it every day. According to the founder and CEO of iSign, Alex Romanov, the coupons were for 10 cents off per gallon.