Posted by admin on June 23, 2011 under Mobile Marketing | 
There have been some statistics from Ebay which seem to be doing the rounds at the minute about the number of high end cars being sold on mobile each day. It seems you can’t sit through a mobile marketing presentation, or read a mobile marketing blog post without some version of the statistics rearing their head.
The niggling feeling I have whenever some starts telling me “Ebay sells one car every 5 minutes via mobile” or “Ebay sells 3 Ferraris a month via mobile” or any other version of the figures produced is that does this really indicate mobile retail adoption?
I’ve purchased through Ebay many times, Ive also purchased through Ebay mobile, but the process I went through to make a mobile purchase was not solely on my handset. On the whole, when I have purchased through Ebay on a mobile handset it has been after doing my research, and deciding to bid, via a desktop machine. The mobile element of the purchase was simply due to the timing of an auction end and the most I did on a mobile was place a final bid. Even the final processing of purchase on the whole was then done on a desktop device, despite Paypal being accessible on mobile. And so, is it not, that these ‘purchases’ which are being reported, are originating on the Ebay website with only a final bid, or auction end time, being recoded on mobile?
If this is the case, and I have no proof either way, then these figures do not tell us anything about the adoption of mobile retail and purchases or payments via mobile devices as this is not a traditional retail purchase. Much more indicative are the figures for the sales ASOS generate through their mobile app.
I do believe mobile commerce is on the rise, and mobile payments are the future, I just don’t think you can put Ebay in this category.
Rant over…..
Posted by admin on under Mobile Technology |
Near field communications (NFC) technology, heralded as the next step in mobile advancement, is set to hit the mainstream over the coming year with retailers already adopting NFC as a payment solution. NFC is the technology solution which allows a mobile handset to be used as a payment method by tapping or holding it near a sensor and authorising the payment using an in built payment solution.
Payments via mobile have been discussed for many years as the next barrier to overcome in the use of mobile devises in our day to day lives. Sandwich chain Eat is the latest large retailer to trial the use of NFC in a single store in central London. Eat will utilise NFC technology to allow customers to redeem coupons and loyalty rewards rather than make payments however Eat has issued a “watch this space” statement indicating they have further plans beyond the trial for the use of NFC.
Google’s launch of Google Wallet will also add to the adoption of the technology and it wont be long before ore high street stores are finding a use for NFC, even if it isn’t for making payments just yet. The main barrier is the technology costs for the retailers themselves as most new smart phones have the functionality already built in. As Tesco put it when asked about their plans, “putting NFC terminals in 35,000 checkout lanes in the UK isn’t cheap”. When looked at this way you can see there are still a couple of barriers to overcome but it can’t be long before NFC terminals start to appear on a fast lane checkout in more local stores.
Posted by admin on June 2, 2011 under Handset News |
Vodafone have exclusive availability on the HTC Desire S and HTC Wildfire in a range of new colours. Now available through Vodafone in Red, Purple and Grey the HTC Desire S and HTC Wildfire now offers a new range of choices for you to consider.
More details on the HTC Wildfire S in Grey
More details on the HTC Desire S in Red
More details of the HTC Wildfire S in Purple
