Tag: mobile payments

Mobile commerce becoming more prolific among consumers

Strategy Analytics, a leading market research firm, has released a new report that sheds light on how consumers are using their mobile devices for mobile commerce. The report, titled “67 percent of Smartphone Owners Use Devices In-Store – Consumer and Retailer Mobile Needs Explored,” suggests that the majority of consumers use their mobile devices for shopping. Mobile commerce has been growing in popularity among consumers for some time, with many considering it more convenient to shop with their mobile devices.

Majority of consumers use their mobile devices to shop

According to the report, approximately 67% of consumers use their mobile device for shopping. For many, this means augmenting an in-store experience using a smartphone or tablet, using their mobile device to find the best deals on products. Mobile payments are also popular among these consumers, especially as companies begin to offer better services in this regard. While mobile devices are often used in-store, the report shows that 61% of consumers use their smartphones and tablets to shop from home.

Retailers investing heavily in mobile commerce

The retail industry has been investing heavily in mobile commerce recently, hoping to capture the interest of tech-savvy consumers. Several companies, such as Tesco and Wal-Mart, have launched applications that make it possible to purchase products with nothing more than a mobile device. Google, as well as other technology companies, have also produced applications that serve as mobile payment platforms. These applications are becoming more prolific, giving a wider range of consumers an opportunity to participate in mobile commerce.

NFC technology may not be the future of mobile payments

The report shows that a great deal of the attention that is centered on mobile commerce revolves around NFC technology. NFC is one of the cornerstones of mobile payments, as it allows mobile devices to transmit financial information over a short distance. Strategy Analytics predicts that NFC technology will eventually fade away due to the lack of support for the technology and the security concerns that many consumers have due to the capabilities of NFC.

The two companies are working together to use a simple QR code based program to pay for purchases.

LevelUp and Nokia have just announced a partnership together that could help to expand the use of mobile payments by consumers, regardless of whether or not they have NFC technology embedded in their devices, as this system is based on the use of QR codes.

This new partnership has had the two companies working together to introduce the service to various cities.

Consumers and businesses in certain American cities are being targeted by Nokia and LevelUp to help to encourage them to use mobile payments for some of the more routine transactions that are being made. The service works when a consumer signs up for the service and links a debit or credit card to the account. Then, when he or she makes a purchase at a participating merchant’s store (where the terminals are available) the app is loaded on the smartphone and a QR code is generated. This is scanned by the terminal and the associated card is billed.

This mobile payments system can also be used to allow consumers to collect loyalty rewards.

According to Matt Kiernan from LevelUp, the mobile payments service is very quick and easy to use. He stated that the average transaction through the service takes about 9 seconds to complete. Comparatively, the average traditional credit card transaction will usually take up to 15 seconds, while a cash transaction averages around 20 seconds.

The two companies in the partnership are hoping to point out that both consumers and businesses can benefit through the use of the service. This is especially true for the combination of the loyalty campaign option into the mobile payments so that the points or rewards can automatically be recorded into the appropriate account.

According to LevelUp, its processing fee has a flat rate of 2 percent, which is lower than the average fee for traditional credit card processing. It also stated that it allows companies to monitor the success of their mobile payments campaigns so that they can see the data related to their spending and activity of their customers. This can help companies to run future campaigns that are better designed to promote specific behaviors among their customers based on past successes.