Mobile commerce concerns rekindled as NFC-based system malfunctions

When it comes to mobile commerce, security is often cited as a major concern among consumers. Much of the security concerns that continue to plague mobile commerce have to do with NFC technology. This technology has long formed the backbone for most mobile commerce initiatives, but has recently begun receiving harsh criticisms due to its lack of security features. The security issues present in NFC technology have caused many companies to seek out alternatives for the sake of mobile commerce.

Marks & Spencer contends with NFC malfunction

The security concerns surrounding NFC technology has begun attracting more attention. In the United Kingdom, popular retailer Marks & Spencer has caused some controversy when its mobile payments service began malfunctioning. According to consumers that had been shopping at the retailer’s stores, the NFC-based mobile payments system in these stores had begun taking money from debit and credit cards that were not intended for payment. In some cases, the payment systems have been taking money from cards as consumers pass by without engaging the system at all.

Consumers losing money on multiple, unauthorized transactions

Marks & Spencer has established mobile payment systems in its 644 stores throughout the UK. The retailer has taken a strong interest in mobile commerce because of the convenience it an offer consumers. Indeed, many shoppers praised the adoption of mobile commerce, but this praise has begun to turn sour as the security issues associated with NFC technology come to light. Some consumers that have fallen victim to the malfunction claim that the mobile payments service has charged them repeatedly, causing significant financial stress for those affected.

Retailer likely to continue supporting mobile commerce, though not NFC

Marks & Spencer has been working with financial services firms to address the issues that the malfunction has caused. The retailer is looking to refund the money of those that fall victim to the malfunction and may be inclined to join other retailers in looking for an alternative to NFC technology. While this problem may have caused some turmoil for the retailer, it is not likely to abandon mobile commerce altogether.

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Augmented reality feature developed by Foursquare

Augmented reality often attracts attention because of its entertaining nature. The technology is regularly used in a wide variety of entertaining ways, leveraged as a tool to provide consumers with dynamic content. This has made augmented reality somewhat common in the marketing field, but the technology does have practical uses, especially when it comes to social networking. Foursquare, the popular location-based social platform, has been working on its own augmented reality feature, which is now available to a select demographic of consumers.

Social networks growing more interested in dynamic engagement

Like other social networks that have shown interest in the technology, Foursquare believes that augmented reality could be a very powerful tool for its users. The company has been working to incorporate the technology into its features for some time and has now developed a service that allows users to experience the world around them in a new way. The augmented reality feature provides users with a real-time view of a location, with this view being captured by a real camera. This could allow users to find out some superficial information concerning a particular location. For example, users could use this feature to find out the wait time at a local restaurant without actually having to visit the restaurant.

New feature only available to Lumia users

There is a catch, of course, as the augmented reality feature is not yet considered ready for mass adoption. As such, Foursquare has determined that only those with Nokia Lumia devices will be able to make use of this feature for the time being. Lumia owners have already been exposed to augmented reality applications in the past, which makes them a somewhat ideal audience for Foursquare’s latest initiative.

Augmented reality may appeal to consumers on a social level

Whether consumers will respond well to Foursquare’s escapades into augmented reality is uncertain. Consumers have shown that they are interested in the technology from an entertainment standpoint. The practical purposes of the technology have been less appealing, but Foursquare is confident that augmented reality will be able to capture the enthusiasm of mobile consumers without much trouble.

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This, according to the results of a panel that examined the usage of the applications on the devices.

The outcome of a recent panel report on the use of mobile commerce apps has suggested that the experience provided by iPhone applications of this nature is far superior to that available to their Android device using counterparts.

The report indicated that m-retailers generate far more income from Apple device users than from Android.

iPhone currently leads the way, with quite a distance over Android smartphones, when it comes to both the total number of minutes that its users spend on mobile commerce apps, and on the number of sessions that its users initiate on a monthly basis. The research indicated that among participating iOS device users, 67.5 percent engage with those applications, when compared to only 43.9 percent of Android device owners.

The mobile commerce data was collected from a panel that studied app use by smartphone owners.

This American smartphone panel was conducted by Arbitron Mobile. Its data indicated that mobile commerce marketers should place a greater focus on the way in which shopping is approached based on the device that is used for the activity. It noted that while the largest revenue opportunity is generated by iPhone devices, the Android market should not be ignored. This is especially true as recent statistics are indicating that devices based on the Google owned operating system are selling considerably more rapidly than those from Apple.

Moreover, success is not simply universal. Some mobile commerce companies are doing better than others in terms of being able to develop their apps in a way that will lead to the greatest amount of customer satisfaction.

For instance the application from eBay had its start very early on and has been able to build a massive user base. This has allowed it to be the most commonly used shopping application among smartphone owners in the United States, says Arbitron. The usage rate of the eBay mobile commerce app was recorded to be 14.3 percent. At a close second, was Amazon Mobile, at 13 percent, followed by Groupon at 1.11 percent.

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These mobile friendly barcodes are ideal for helping to reduce the spread of counterfeit products.

A counterfeit expert has explained that using unique QR codes on the packaging for alcoholic beverages is now helping to reduce the spread of counterfeit products and false claims.

These barcodes allow consumers to be able to verify claims about products while still in store.

KPMG’s Geert de Vries, from the risk services unit, has explained that using QR codes can provide far greater benefit than using special ink or holograms, which he calls “relatively useless”. However, producers can be instantly alerted by consumers who have scanned the codes while in stores and who have found where fakes are being sold.

He pointed out that the anti counterfeiting opportunity is considerable when QR codes are used.

De Vries spoke at a London International Wine Fair seminar and said that QR codes are going to “grow to be enormous”. He also stated that “The whole illicit trade can be stopped by unique codes.” These are very bold statements considering the controversy surrounding the barcodes and that many in the mobile industry think that their day has come and gone.

However, de Vries would argue that the European Union has intentions to bring in new laws that would make certain that all packaging for alcoholic products will carry their own unique codes. He stated that that these laws will follow the introduction of QR codes on pharmaceutical packaging in 2017, which could be implemented as soon as 2020.

One of the recommendations that this expert made to companies was to include themselves among the first to use QR codes for this purpose. The reason that he made this suggestion is because “That way you can see where the problems and where the advantages lie with it.”

The design of QR codes is similar to other types of barcodes, such as UPCs, except that these can be scanned using smartphones. When these two dimensional barcodes have been read, they can be run through the code database of a manufacturer. Should it not be recognized, then it makes it possible for the manufacturer to communicate with the consumer in order to request the details of where the product was seen or purchased so that further investigation – potentially by the police – can be initiated.

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This application will provide health data to a hospital and university for better and more accurate understanding.

Saraphi Hospital and Chiang Mai University (CMU) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, have developed an mhealth app that is designed to provide users with a survey that will allow those health organizations to gather and digitize medical data from the residents of the district.

The application is called “Saraphi Health”, which is a central element of a three year project.

The application and the mhealth project of which it is a critical element, receives its funding from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. The purpose is to be able to build a digital archive to be used by the managers and developers of public healthcare policy so that the care services can be improved and to better the efficiency of dealing with urgent health situations.

The collaborative effort of the mhealth program is meant to completely transform the public health system.

The CMU Computer Science Development Team head, Ekkarat Boonchiang, explained that the partnership among the organizations behind the mhealth app is expected to transform the collection system for public medical data, and turn it into a system that is entirely digitized with a larger number of layers. The application and the new system is designed to improve ease of use for stakeholders who are connected to community health management, such as agencies and hospitals, as well as local governments.

The mhealth app uses both Android and iOS based smartphones and tablets, and will make it possible for raw data that has been collected from participants to be transferred directly into the central Saraphi Hospital system by way of the public cellular network.

Waraporn Boonchiang, one of the software development team members, explained that the mhealth data collector will be able to use the app to enter the data into the system while visiting people within the Saraphi district and that “The information they collect will be embedded in the location of the house, which will be plotted on a map. Then this public health information can be visualised. We can also see the houses in Google Street View.”

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Consumers need to have personalization if they are going to respond in the desired way.

New research is now showing that in order for mobile marketing to be successful, the messages that are sent from brands and companies to consumers and customers must be customized.

The study indicated that is a vital approach to communicating with consumers is personalization.

The research was performed by Infinite Convergence Solutions, a mobility solutions provider. Based on what they discovered, they stated that almost half of the smartphone owning participants in the study who are not currently subscribing to messages from businesses would do so if they felt that the mobile marketing would be specifically customized to their preferences or needs.

This indicates that businesses must shift their mobile marketing to a highly personalized style to be successful.

These findings also suggest that if mobile marketing messages were more customized, they could take off to a much greater degree. According to the Infinite Convergence Solutions CEO, Anurag Lal, “Consumers want tailored information and experiences.” Lal also stated that “Understanding who the consumer is and how to forge a connection is crucial to push consumers to act on the mobile messages they receive.”

The report on the mobile marketing research indicated that among smartphone owners, 36 percent were receiving messages from businesses over their devices. Moreover, 90 percent of the respondents who were receiving messages were doing so from up to five different retailers.

Lal explained that the number of smartphone and cell phone owners is consistently rising. The result of this is that consumers are often utilizing these devices for a larger number of tasks, especially as their primary method of communication both over voice and digitally. “SMS and MMS messaging is the most ubiquitous and convenient form of communication and a platform businesses must leverage to reach consumers.”

The research indicated that mobile marketing from businesses must use special promotions directed at individual customers in order to draw them through messaging campaigns. This would add more appeal to 38 percent of the smartphone owners who aren’t currently subscribing to any messages from retailers at all.

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The agreement will bring the technology to a larger number of restaurants.

Leading retail point of sale (POS) software supplier for American restaurants, NCR, has partnered with LevelUp to bring the mobile payments app into the POS systems in order to be able to complete dining transactions.

The startup is hoping that this will help it to make greater inroads into this rapidly growing market.

This is especially important because restaurants are proving to be one of the most important growth areas for mobile payments. LevelUp has now formed this important massive partnership on top of a number of deals that it has started with several smaller suppliers. The company does still have quite a distance to travel before it will be available at all of the various fast food restaurants and bistros across the country, but this is an important step.

It is comfortable knowing that at least it will be possible for half of U.S. restaurants to use its mobile payments.

That the mobile payments from LevelUp will now be available through NCR systems will help to make it easier for many restaurants and businesses to take on the technology. The startup offers both its own mobile payments application, as well as white label technology that can be used by retailers in order to work it into their own apps.

In either situation, it is relatively simple to integrate the mobile payments technology. It works by generating QR codes that are linked to the credit card data of a customer. That way, when the customer displays this barcode, it can be scanned at the restaurant into its terminal in order to complete the transaction and pay the bill.

The terminal at the restaurant could be as simple and straightforward as a tablet or smartphone of the proprietor, which can scan the code displayed on the screen of the customer’s device. This means that if the restaurant owner does not wish to add any additional hardware in order to accept mobile payments, then it is not necessarily required. For each transaction, there is a flat fee of 2 percent taken by LevelUp for the use of its services.

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Mobile sites are becoming vital in a new business landscape

The world is becoming more mobile. That is to say consumers around the globe are becoming more reliant on smartphones and tablet devices. For businesses, this means a multitude of new marketing opportunities that can drive online traffic. If consumers are forced to visit websites that are not optimized for mobile use, however, their experience is likely to be bad enough to encourage them to ignore a particular brand. Mobile sites can mean the difference between a consumer exodus and an enjoyable experience that will ensure that consumers come back for more.

Mobile websites are important to consumers, and that means they should be important to businesses as well. Those that are not strictly focused on the mobile space or lack the programming pedigree to develop their own mobile site need not worry, however, as there are services available to help businesses build mobile sites of their own. Mob.is.it is one such service.

Mob.is.it offers new B2B opportunities

Mob.is.it is an online platform that allows users to develop and customize their own mobile sites. The platform offers a wide range of features that are meant to make the development process as simple as possible without sacrificing ingenuity or innovation. While Mob.is.it is not the only platform of its kind, it does offer services that may not be available through its competitors and this is most apparent in the platform’s proclivity for reselling.

There are several online services available to businesses that can aid in the construction of a mobile site, but Mob.is.it is among the very few that allows for reselling. In this way, Mob.is.it could be a valuable tool for B2B purposes, especially as mobile-optimization begins to determine the success a business may find online.

The platform allows for complete customization and management of a mobile site. The platform supports a variety of languages, each of which can be integrated into a mobile site that is being built. It can also support e-commerce initiatives, allowing businesses to process payments for goods purchased online. One of the most attractive features of the Mob.is.it platform, from a B2B perspective, is that the platform itself is entirely white-label. This means that a business can use the Mob.is.it platform to create mobile websites for its clients and receive full credit for doing so. This feature does, of course, come at a price.

The Mob.is.it platform supports HTML5 in order to ensure all mobile sites are as responsive and reliable as possible. A focus on HTML5 also ensures that the sites developed through the platform are available cross-platform, allowing for universal access of these sites. The platform also taps into cloud computing, putting the power of CloudFlare to use in order to ensure that mobile sites are fast and protected against malicious attacks. 

Two options available for businesses interested in mobility

For B2B purposes, Mob.is.it offers two package options: Basic Reseller and Power Reseller. The Basic Reseller package offers the base level of features that can be found in the platform, while the Power Reseller option offers unrestricted access to these features. For businesses interested in having full control over their mobile websites and the reselling opportunities that exist therein, the latter package is considered ideal, especially as it brings more flexibility to the Mob.is.it platform and supports more creative options.

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