Tag: mobile payments

Mobile payments firm announces support for Apple Pay and Bitcoin

| September 25, 2014

Square will begin supporting Apple Pay and Bitcoin through its new register service

Square, a prominent mobile payments firm in North America, recently announced that it will be registering its service with Apple Pay. The firm is yet another prominent entity in the mobile commerce space that has begun showing support for the Apple Pay platform. Square is not limiting itself to showing support for Apple Pay, of course, and has also announced that it is considering supporting Bitcoin, a somewhat controversial digital currency.

Register service aims to accept any form of payment that will become available in the future

The firm is currently developing a register service that will allow merchants to accept traditional payments, checks, credit cards, and digital currency. Eventually, the service is meant to accept any form of payment that could emerge in the future as a way to help merchants connect with the ever evolving nature of mobile technology and how mobile payments are influencing consumer behavior. Supporting Bitcoin is one of the first steps in this endeavor.

Bitcoin continues to gain traction despite volatile nature

Mobile Payments Support for BitcoinBitcoin is somewhat controversial because of its unregulated nature. The lack of regulation makes Bitcoin somewhat volatile in terms of value. The value of this digital currency often fluctuates with little reason. At the beginning of 2014, a single Bitcoin was worth approximately $1,000. Now, however, a single coin is worth $435. The value of this currency changes based on various factors, most of which are impossible to control. Because of its volatile nature, some merchants avoid Bitcoin, but others are beginning to embrace it in order to better accommodate digital consumers.

Square does not see Apple Pay as competition because they both accomplish different tasks

Square notes that Apple Pay is not considered to be a competition for Square. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, claims that Apple Pay is only a platform that enables mobile payments, while Square processes these payments. Square does not build a payment device, but rather serves as a payment processor for organizations that are involved in the mobile commerce space.

Retailers could be missing out on a major mobile commerce opportunity

| September 25, 2014

Retailers may not be prepared for the mobile shopping holidays

The holidays are coming and retailers may be unprepared for the proverbial onslaught they will receive from mobile consumers. UniteU, a mobile commerce integrator, has released a new report concerning this problem, suggesting that retailers could face serious challenges when it comes to serving mobile consumers through their websites. The report measures site speeds and their capability to support mobile shopping. UniteU has found that many retailers, including multi-billion-dollar organizations, could fall short of satisfying mobile shoppers during the 2014 holiday season.

Mobile commerce has been performing well during the holiday season

The holidays are an important time for the retail industry. Black Friday is the most active shopping day of the year and serves as an opportunity for retailers to recover from losses they saw earlier in the year. Over the past few years, retailers have been putting a greater focus on mobile commerce, taking note of the growing prominence of mobile shoppers and how much these consumers are spending on products. Several retailers have created mobile websites to accommodate these consumers, but few of these sites are able to serve consumers like they should.

Retailers lack the mobile websites needed to engage consumers effectively

Retail Mobile CommerceThe report shows that many of the retail sites available to consumers are not optimized for mobile devices. This can provide a poor shopping experience for mobile consumers. The majority of mobile payments currently comes from smartphones, which do not use traditional web browsers. Mobile web browsers have trouble deciphering the coding used to make retail websites, so if these sites are not optimized for mobile devices, mobile consumers have trouble using them.

Without optimized mobile websites, retailers could miss out on a significant opportunity

A recent report from Forrester Research suggests that some $26 billion in mobile payments will be processed by the end of this year. The majority of this money is likely to be processed during the holiday season. If retailers cannot optimize their mobile websites by then, they could be missing out on a major opportunity.