Got mobile yet? Today, were looking at mobile commerce news and highlighting e-commerce sites that understand the importance of mobile and how to make it work to the max. Business Intelligence says in-store mobile payments will reach $75 billion in the US in 2016. A new report from Criteo says 48.9% of UK e-commerce transactions were on phones or tablets. Paypal research says US mobile commerce will grow from $54.6 million in 2014 to $96.3 million by the end of 2016. Samsung and Alibaba will partner to offer mobile payment services as Samsung looks to expand its service globally. Alibaba’s Alipay mobile payment service already has 450 million China customers.
Bango acquires US mobile payments firm BilltoMobile among numerous other consolidations in the mobile payment space. Fitbit acquired mobile payments technology from Coin as part of plans to and mobile payment services to its fitness devices. Associação Brasileira de Comércio Eletrônico (ABComm) reports mobile commerce is growing in Brazil. Mega-mobile payments venture of retailers – MCX – hangs it up after losing to other stronger competitors like Apple Pay. Business.com profiles seven e-commerce sites that do mobile very well.
THE MOBILE PAYMENTS REPORT: Market forecasts, consumer trends, and the barriers and benefits that will influence adoption
Although the mobile wallet ecosystem is maturing, in-store mobile payments haven’t yet taken off. Consumer disinterest, coupled with delays in fully implementing the necessary infrastructure, are preventing mobile wallets from achieving mainstream adoption.
While neither merchants nor consumers have yet fully embraced mobile payments, mobile wallets offer benefits to all stakeholders: enhanced security features, faster checkout, and loyalty integration. Each of these is a plus for customers and merchants alike, and will eventually convince both parties to embrace the technology.
Our new estimate finds that US in-store mobile payment volume will reach $75 billion this year. Between 2015-2020, we expect volume to rise by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80% to bring mobile payments volume to $503 billion by 2020.
And we expect to see a significant uptick in the number of US consumers making mobile payments. We forecast the number of in-store mobile payment users to rise at a 40% five-year CAGR to reach 150 million by the end of 2020. This represents 56% of the consumer population during that year. Via businessinsider.com
Mobile now makes up half of all UK ecommerce purchases, with iPhone the top platform
The iPhone is now the most popular mobile platform for UK ecommerce Data from performance marketing tech firm Criteo found that 48.9% of ecommerce transactions in the first quarter of 2016 were on phones or tablets – up from 43% in the same period last year.
Despite Android enjoying a larger market share, Apple devices dominated mobile ecommerce transactions. The iPhone now makes up 19% of all transactions (equal to 39% of those on mobile devices) – which is up from only 12% last year.
The iPad’s share, meanwhile, has fallen from 20% to 17.1%. A similar pattern can be seen in Android devices, with the share of purchases on phones increasing, and on tablets decreasing. The data also showed an increasingly complex technological world, with 39% of transactions now involving more than one device along the path to purchase. Via campaignlive.co.uk
Mobile Commerce Growth Is Outpacing Desktop eCommerce
Mobile commerce posted astounding growth rates in 2015. A recent Forrester Research survey indicates that smartphone sales accounted for 17% of total retail sales in 2015, and that sales from smartphone devices grew 53% year-over-year.
This trend is likely to continue in 2016 and beyond. In fact, Paypal research indicates that global mobile commerce growth should outpace eCommerce growth by three to one, while US mobile commerce should grow from $54.6 million in 2014 to $96.3 million by the end of 2016. Compared to the roughly 10% increase eCommerce is expected to see each year, mobile commerce in the US has a projected growth rate of approximately 30 percent each year through 2016. Via business2community.com
Alibaba, Samsung Join Hands for Mobile Payments Service
Chinese online retail behemoth Alibaba has teamed up with South Korean electronics giant Samsung for mobile payments services. Sources familiar with the matter told Yonhap News Agency that the deal will be officially announced on Friday, May 20. Alibaba has its own mobile payment service Alipay, which has more than 450 million active users in China.
Last year, Samsung launched its own online payment platform Samsung Pay in Korea and the US. The service debuted in China in March, just a month after Apple Pay launched in the country. Samsung sees China as a huge potential market, currently dominated by homegrown giants Alipay, Tenpay, and Huawei Pay. The Korean company also plans to take its mobile payment service to Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Spain, and the UK by the end of this year.
At the time of China launch, Samsung Pay supported debit and credit cards from nine banks, with another six banks planned. Currently, Samsung Pay users can make payments at most of the retail outlets that accept debit cards, credit cards, and membership cards. The tie-up with Alibaba will allow Samsung Pay users to “make payments for their offline purchases using Alipay’s QR codes and barcode scanners.” Samsung Pay has more than five million active users in the United States and South Korea. Via valuewalk.com
Bango’s BilltoMobile acquisition puts spotlight back on direct carrier billing
Bango’s acquisition of Danal Inc.’s BilltoMobile direct carrier billing division in the U.S. last week set in motion a series of events in an industry that’s often ignored here, but continues to give mobile carriers worldwide an opportunity to increase their bottom line as they face dwindling revenue streams from voice and messaging services.
On the same day that U.K.-based Bango made its acquisition for $3.5 million, Las Vegas-based Axiologix Inc. announced that it had entered into a joint venture with SLA Mobile, a direct carrier biller with headquarters in Malaysia and the U.K. The next day, Austria’s Dimoco purchased Italy-based Onebip for an undisclosed amount.
While consolidation is bound to happen in any industry, these deals show that this market is still healthy. It’s expected to bring mobile operators some $12 billion in revenue by 2022, according to a prediction from research firm Analysys Mason. Via mobilepaymentstoday.com
Fitbit Buys Mobile Payments Technology But Won’t Add This Year
Fitbit is moving to add a mobile payments feature to its market-leading line of activity trackers, but slowly.
The company purchased wearable payments technology from startup Coin last week, but won’t integrate the feature into new bands until at least next year, CEO James Park told Fortune. The deal also includes intellectual property and key engineering and sales personnel from Coin, but doesn’t involve the company’s mobile wallet.
Fitbit did not disclose the sales price, but Park said it was not material to the company, which reported almost $2 billion of sales last year. Via fortune.com
Mobile Makes Retail Ecommerce Gains in Brazil
Ecommerce site traffic in Brazil is still the domain of desktops, with 68% of consumer goods retailer traffic coming from there. But a report by Associação Brasileira de Comércio Eletrônico (ABComm) highlights how quickly mobile is rising in the world of ecommerce.
Mobile totaled just one-third of all consumer goods retailer traffic in 2015. While that’s still a considerably smaller share than desktop, examining 2014’s figures casts the narrative in a different light. 2014 saw mobile holding just a 21% share, which means that, over the course of one year, mobile seized more than 10% of the market from desktop traffic. Smaller gains—though still solid—were made in terms of ecommerce conversions for consumer goods retailers.
While mobile did gain 6% of market share over the year, from 13% to 19%, desktop still holds 81% of conversion share. E-bit Informação, meanwhile, estimated that mobile held just 12% of all ecommerce sales in terms of volume. So while shoppers in Brazil are certainly doing more browsing on mobile devices, they’re still far more likely to take action on a desktop computer—where they’re also likely to spend more. Via emarketer.com
Mega-Mobile Payments Venture of Retailers Hangs It Up; Walmart Goes Solo
First it was Softcard, the failed mobile payments venture of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, which called it quits early last year. That venture was pretty well doomed from the start, with the initial and unfortunate name of Isis.
It then changed its name to Softcard, without actually even owning the website www.softcard.com, as I wrote about at the time (Softcard Mobile Payments Closing, Shutting Down Accounts).
And now the other major mobile wallet entity known as the Merchant Customer Exchange, with the dreadful acronym of MCX, is finally officially not happening. Via mediapost.com
7 Great Mobile-Friendly E-commerce Websites
When Google introduced the changes to its mobile search algorithm, a TechCrunch survey found that 44 percent of Fortune 500 websites failed Google’s mobile-friendly test, with another four percent producing no response at all. Via business.com
That’s our look at the latest in mobile commerce. If you’re enjoying Cashback Industry News, it’s easy to get your free news highlights every weekday morning by subscribing at the top of this newsletter. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll have more news you can use on Monday morning.