Just as the internet has changed business, smartphones are changing commerce
The smartphone technology marketplace around the globe has reached an explosive boom, as consumers demand more devices and more from them once they have them, including mobile payments and other services of convenience.
In 2011, for the first time ever, sales of tablets outpaced that of laptops and desktops.
Of course, more cell phones have been sold for PCs for a few years now. This, and a number of very important trends are driving the technology and use of mobile payments forward, worldwide. This is increasing its expansion at a breakneck speed. Primary among these trends – aside from the penetration of the devices capable of completing these transactions – is a massive shift toward credit and debit and away from cash and checks.
Now, these same consumers can leave their cards at home and achieve the same digital.
Consumers are able to increase convenience and efficiency as the physical and online worlds are brought together with this technology. Furthermore, as retailers and other businesses maintain their effort to boost their online and m-commerce, digital transaction services such as PayPal and Google Wallet are able to build their momentum.
Retailers are now using this technology to integrate their point of sale, online, and mobile payments to offer consumers a tremendously increased level of flexibility, so that they may choose to use their devices to pay for their product and service purchases over the internet or in store, without having to change the method by which they accomplish this goal. As the expectation for this option increases among smartphone users, retailers are responding by significantly strengthening their multi- and cross-channel strategies.
Though it remains novel, it won’t be long before it will be critical to a company’s survival.
Furthermore, these efforts don’t stop at mobile payments, but extend outward to include marketing, as well as loyalty programs, pre-paid initiatives, and discount coupon offers to provide consumers not only with a way to make the purchase, but a reason to do so with a specific business, as opposed to its competition. This multi-functionality cannot be achieved by any other existing means.
