Tag: tesco

Mobile commerce to get more physical with eBay’s help

| May 3, 2013

eBay Mobile Commerce

eBay continues to shine the limelight on mobile commerce

For several years, eBay has dominated the e-commerce scene, with only Amazon considered to be its most significant competitor. The online retailer has put a great deal of emphasis in improving the online shopping experience of consumers and has recently begun to embrace more commerce in an aggressive fashion. Indeed, eBay anticipates that mobile commerce will account for a significant portion of its sales in the coming years. This week, CEO John Donahoe outlined plans to take the company in a relatively new direction: Offline commerce.

Retailer aims to blur the lines between physical and digital commerce

Donahoe is eager to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds when it comes to commerce. This has been accomplished to some degree by eBay already through the adoption of mobile commerce. Consumers shopping for products from their mobile devices have shown how blurry the lines between physical and digital retail have become. This summer, eBay plans to partner with several retailers in order to make mobile commerce have an even more tangible presence in the real world.

Pop up shops gaining notice

According to Donahoe, eBay will be working to support “pop up” shops this year. The idea behind pop up shops is somewhat simple: A store front that can be located anywhere and sell products online to those using mobile devices. These shops are becoming more popular in the retail industry, especially when it comes to retailers trying to reach out to busy consumers. In 2011, UK retailer Tesco created a pop up shop in South Korea, where QR codes where used to sell products to consumers using public transit. eBay has plans to follow in Tesco’s footsteps to some degree.

New York may soon have new pop up shops

The online retailer will be leveraging the power of QR codes in order to sell products. These codes can be scanned by a mobile device to initiate a mobile transaction. The products are then delivered to a consumer’s home or elsewhere as defined by the customer. PayPal and eBay already have strong ties to several physical retailers and expect that this initiative will be well received. The retailer plans to launch this new initiative this year in New York.

Mobile commerce applications gain more popularity in the UK

| February 21, 2013

Mobile Commerce UK GrowthData shows UK Android users are enchanted by mobile commerce apps

There was a time when mobile games and other entertainment applications were exceedingly popular among Android users. New data from Nielsen, a leading information and analysis firm, shows that this is no longer the case, at least in the United Kingdom. According to Nielsen, mobile commerce and banking applications are now the most popular apps with Android users. Seven of the top 15 major applications in the UK market have to do with mobile commerce in some way, with some of the most used apps coming from Tesco, Amazon, and Quidco.

Consumers show strong interest in shopping from their smart phones and tablets

Mobile commerce has grown to become a very powerful force in the mobile space. Consumers all over the world have been showing interest in using their mobile devices to purchase products of all kinds. Mobile commerce is especially popular in retail, where companies like Tesco have been working to engage mobile consumers for years. According to Nielsen, Tesco’s application saw more than a 145% spike in new users between May and October of 2012. Those using the application spent 45% more time engaged with the retailer during the same period.

Banks and telecoms account for many popular applications

Many of the mobile commerce applications that have become popular with UK consumers come from the country’s banks and telecommunications companies. Banking applications have been included in Nielsen’s data because mobile commerce does not exclusively refer to the practice of purchase a product using a smart phone or tablet. Rather, mobile commerce is any form of commerce conducted through the use of a mobile device, banking and shopping included.

Mobile games win in consumer engagement

Despite mobile commerce applications becoming so popular among Android users, many consumers are still showing strong interest in mobile games. Nielsen’s data shows that mobile games accounted for the most time spent on smart phones and tablets among consumers. While these applications may have been beaten out by mobile commerce in terms of growth, they are still soaking up the majority of a consumer’s time through engagement.