Tag: mobile shopping

Mobile commerce continues to change the way people pay for products

With the advent of mobile commerce, the concept of using a smartphone or tablet as a point-of-sales terminal gained more traction. Consumers have been growing more comfortable with the idea of using their mobile devices to purchase products over the past three years. As a result, more of these mobile devices have been showing up in several markets as point-of-sale systems. For merchants that had been traditionally unable to facilitate credit and debit card transactions, this may provide them with the ability to reach a wider demographic of consumers.

Study details growth of mobile point-of-sale technologies

A new study from Javelin Strategy and Research, a market research and analysis firm, highlights the potential impact of new merchants entering into the mobile commerce field. According to the study, mobile point-of-sale transactions are expected to account for $1.1 trillion in new mobile payments. The study also suggests that the number of merchants able to accept mobile payments will swell by 20 million.

Mobile commerce becoming a formidable force in the world

Mobile commerce has become a major force in the world. The number of consumers with smartphones and tablets has made it possible for this new form of commerce to emerge. Several industries have begun responding the growing popularity of mobile commerce and new point-of-sale technologies are making it possible for consumers to have even more access to mobile commerce services. The more these mobile point-of-sale platforms grow, however, the larger threat they present to the traditional point-of-sale market.

Traditional technology may be losing ground

Traditional payment terminals, such as cash registers, may soon be considered obsolete. These point-of-sale platforms exist to manage physical currencies rather than virtual currencies. Mobile commerce allows for accurate transactions and removes the need for physical currency, which may be enough to push older technologies away from the industries that have relied on them for several years.

When compared to a year ago at the same time, mobile shopping increased by nearly a third in the first quarter.

According to the latest IBM Online Retail Index research data, m-commerce has experienced a growth by nearly a third (31 percent) in the first quarter of 2013, when compared to its size at the same time in 2012.

The report pointed out that the growing use of tablets and customer service improvements were primary drivers.

The index states that at the moment, m-commerce is making up 17.4 percent of all online retail sales. This is a notable increase over where it was a year prior, at 13.3 percent. On the whole, spending online, in general, had increased by 20 percent within that same quarter. The index found that tablets are playing an ever increasing role as a driver of shopping over mobile.

They said that m-commerce has become more comfortable as people use iPads and other tablets.

The overall m-commerce traffic, including all devices, rose by 40 percent in the first quarter of 2013. However, among tablets, specifically, there was an increase of almost 80 percent when compared to the same time last year.

The report pointed out that “This trend reflects marketers’ ability to create a positive customer experience for consumers shopping on their iPads and Kindles, by designing for the finger and making it easier for customers to browse via their mobile devices.” The results presented in this report align quite closely with other similar research that is also pointing to tablets in their growing importance for m-commerce.

Earlier in 2013, there was a forecast issued by eMarketer which stated that transactions over tablets made up 57 percent of the almost $25 billion that occurred over m-commerce in 2012. Based on that, they expected the figure to rise to reach 62.5 percent in 2013. This is also interesting as the penetration of tablets is at less than half of that of smartphones. Tablets are currently owned by approximately 20 percent of people in the United States, whereas it is believed that more than 50 percent are already the owners of smartphones.