Tag: uk mcommerce

Recent study finds that UK consumers are not sold on the idea of mobile commerce

Despite the fact that more businesses are beginning to enter the mobile commerce space, consumers in the United Kingdom may not be following suit. A recent study from eMarketer shows that many consumers are still not convinced that mobile payments are viable or convenient. A similar report from Bain & Co. found that only 3% of UK Internet users had used their mobile devices to pay for goods and services in February of 2014.

Mobile commerce remains an uncomfortable subject for many people

Mobile commerce is often praised for its convenient nature, but it also receives some harsh criticism because of the security issues that exist within the mobile space. Companies participating in mobile commerce have, to some degree, been the reason for this criticism. Some companies have tried to bring their own mobile payments platforms to the commercial market, but many of these platforms have been poorly designed and were crippled by serious security faults. Poor experiences have left many people with a sour opinion of mobile commerce, which is quickly becoming something that they want to avoid.

Consumer awareness of mobile services and payments is not lacking

The study found that awareness is not a problem when it comes to mobile payments. Approximately 55% of consumers are aware of the mobile commerce services that are available to them, but few of these people are willing to participate in mobile commerce, favoring instead their credit cards and other traditional forms of commerce. Consumers also seem to be quite leery of the mobile commerce services that are available to them, especially those that involve the use of digital currency.

UK businesses must solve mobile security problems before consumers embrace mobile commerce

UK businesses have high hopes for mobile commerce, but whether these hopes will ever be actualized is difficult to say for sure. Currently, security is one of the most significant issues that the mobile commerce space is facing. If security issues cannot be resolved, consumers are unlikely to ever become supportive of mobile commerce.

The holiday and Christmas shopping season left the company’s previous accomplishments in the dust.

Shop Direct has recently revealed that is was one of the many online retailers that experienced a massive mobile commerce success over the last holiday shopping season, as its Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com websites saw considerable surges in searches and purchases from smartphones and tablets.

This is being seen as further evidence that British shoppers are accepting mcommerce on a growing basis.

The trading update from Shop Direct said that its mobile commerce sales saw an increase by 64 percent over the six weeks that led up to December 27. Chief executive of the company, Alex Baldock, said that sales over smartphones and tablets had “exploded” in the weeks and days that led up to Christmas.

Overall, mobile commerce makes up 43 percent of the total online sales at Shop Direct’s sites.

Baldock also added that “By 2015, we expect every transaction to involve a mobile device at some point in the customer journey.” He stated that it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this online shopping trend, and “we mean to stay on top of it.”

Shop Direct is a company that is owned by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay. They are also the owners of the massive Telegraph Media Group. They have revealed that they will be making a tremendous investment of £100 million toward the mobile development and digital business. A prime focus within this effort will be on personalizing their site, email marketing and digital applications.

During that same six week period, the company reported that their overall sales increased by 5 percent. This is an acceleration in its growth when compared to what it had been experiencing over the entire second half of the year, which was at 1percent.

There were a number of contributing factors to this growth, including the performance over mobile commerce, as well as the newer brands of the company, isme.com and Very.co.uk, which experienced a considerable sales increase of 27 percent. One interesting point was that in the weeks before Christmas, the company was selling one onesie every 35 seconds.