NetBiscuits

Browsers Beat Out Apps for M-Commerce

2012-01-25T14:38:55Z

Despite the proliferation of branded mobile shopping applications, consumers exhibit a strong preference for shopping via mobile browser. Only 4% prefer to shop using mobile apps. Full Article

Sears keynote: 2012 will be mobile’s tipping point

2012-01-20T18:43:07Z

NEW YORK – A Sears executive at the Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 conference yesterday said seven out of 10 smartphone owners have either shopped or browsed on their mobile device, proving that mobile is an opportunity for retailers to drive sales.

During the “Sears: How the mobile pioneer will push the envelope in 2012” closing keynote, the executive spoke about where mobile is heading this year. Mobile is changing constantly and marketing strategies need to adapt to that.

“Customers want the best of both worlds,” said Imran Jooma, president of ecommerce at Sears.

“They want all the pluses you get out of digital and the ability to socialize,” he said. “They also want to see the best of the physical world – the ability to touch.

“That’s what mass merchants and retailers need to do – bring those two things together.

” Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 was a presentation of Napean, parent to Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily.

Changing world
Mobile is changing and marketers and retailers need to embrace technology.

“The mobile device serves as a glue to bring in the physical and digital world together,” Mr. Jooma said. “We must elevate the experience.”

According to Mr. Jooma, it is important to create and seamless and effortless experience for consumers.

Sears lets consumers order and purchase items through its mobile site and applications and lets them choose to either get it delivered to their home or pick it up in-store.

“Consumers are looking for instant gratification and are savvy enough to buy online and pick up in-store,” Mr. Jooma said. “At Sears we have roughly around 700-plus stores where there’s a designated parking spot and we can bring the product to you.

There’s also a designated pick-up center where you can pick up the product if you choose to go in-store,” he said.

Additionally, the company has deployed iPads and iPod touches to 450 of its stores.

“This helps enhance relationship between customers and associates,” Mr. Jooma said.

The iPad and iPod touch deployment helps provide timely access to information, inventory, product information and training.

It also improves customer service, facilitates associate training and provides free Wi-Fi for consumers,” Mr. Jooma said.

“Consumers can see reviews, product descriptions and videos,” he said. “Consumers feel good about buying from the physical stores – they don’t have to do a lot of research.”

It is also important that brands and marketers make shopping convenient.

“Sears uses mobile apps to blend the physical and virtual spaces that allow consumers to shop anywhere and anytime,” Mr. Jooma said. “It’s also important to provide consumers with quick access to information.

“With QR codes, customers have yet another way to gather information they are seeking – the key is to not just have the QR codes, but give them a reason to use it.”

Additionally, social is an important aspect to mobile.

“Create apps that are social – give people a reason to share,” Mr. Jooma said. “Successful mobile apps integrate with social networks and allow customers and brands to share and engage more than ever before.

“Location-based services enables personalized and compelling offers,” he said. “Customers want immediate information and recommendations about nearby offers. “

Loyalty
It is also important to create and maintain customer loyalty.

“You have to tie your rewards with your mobile app,” Mr. Jooma said.

According to the executive mobile is at the epicenter of moving Sears from a multichannel retailer to an integrated retailer.

“Our customers want to shop anywhere,” Mr. Jooma said.

According to Mr. Jooma, it is important to optimize the mobile experience – one size does not fit all for mobile.

Marketers and brands need to offer unique experience for their brand and integrate social and personalize.

“You also need to focus on the core functionalities, focus on browse, search and checkout,” Mr. Jooma said. “At the end of the day the mobile customer doesn’t always have time and they want to go to point A and point B.

“You have to be fast and accessible,” he said. “And definitely keep it simple.”

EBay expects $8B in mobile commerce, $7B in mobile payments this year

2012-01-13T13:10:44Z

Chantal Tode has today covered the following story on Netbiscuits' long-term customer EBay for www.mobilecommercedaily.com:

EBay expects $8B in mobile commerce, $7B in mobile payments this year

This could be a mobile-tastic year for eBay, with the company predicting it will do $8 billion in mobile gross merchandise volume and $7 billion in mobile total payment volume in 2012.

The numbers, which come from a speech made by eBay CEO John Donahoe at the CES conference in Las Vegas this week, are up significantly from last year and point to the growing role that mobile is playing for eBay. The company also announced that PayPal exceeded expectations for 2011, reaching $4 billion in mobile payment volume and that EBay saw $5 billion in mobile gross merchandise volume.

“Consumers are using their mobile phones more and more to shop anytime and anywhere,” said Amanda Pires, senior director of global communications and experiential marketing for PayPal, San Jose, CA.

“Consumers are increasingly choosing eBay mobile and PayPal mobile because we provide a great shopping experience and a fast, highly secure way to pay,” she said. ”With millions of customers globally, the brands are already trusted online so it makes sense consumers would chose eBay and PayPal on their mobile phones.

“We’re seeing many of our retail customers offer shopping experiences optimized for the mobile phone. And we expect that trend to continue.”

(...)

Read the full story at mobilecommercedaily.com

m.CBS.com wins Eppy Award for Best Mobile Website

2011-12-08T13:41:51Z

CBS Interactive’s m.CBS.com, which was built by Netbiscuits, has won the Eppy Award for Best Mobile Website with 250,000 to 1,000,000 unique monthly visitors.

The Eppy Awards, presented by Editor & Publisher, honor the best media-affiliated websites across 43 diverse categories. Now in its 16th year, this international contest has broadened its scope to keep up with the ever-changing Internet industry.

You can see the full list of award winners here.

This is the second major award of the year for m.CBS.com, which in July took home the Meffys 2011 Award for Best Mobile Website.

ME Awards 2011 - The Winning Team

2011-11-24T16:40:57Z

Netbiscuits' Tony Ion, Jim Hill, Duncan Hallas, James Shepherd and Christian Atack attended the ME Awards ceremony to accept this year's award for the "Best Mobile Web Publishing Platform".

Image Source: Mobile Entertainment (www.mobile-ent.biz)

For more pictures from the award gala please see: http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/me-awards-winners-gallery/016263

Ebay expects $5B in mobile sales in 2011

2011-11-07T10:30:54Z

EBay confirmed that 2011 will be its largest mobile shopping season to date with an expected $5 billion in mobile sales, driven in part by the holidays. (…)

“Over the last 12-18 months we at eBay have changed our view on ecommerce,” said John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, San Francisco.

“We’re now seeing a profound change in how consumers are behaving, and we’re going to see more changes in the next three years than we’re seen in the previous 20 in terms of shopping and payments,” he said.

“Mobile devices are blurring the lines between online and offline at a rate no one would have predicted.”

To read the full story, please go to mobilecommercedaily.com

Netbiscuits mobilizes the eBay Partner Network

2011-12-08T13:42:16Z

Since 2005, eBay has partnered with Netbiscuits to build, manage and optimize m.eBay.com into the premier mobile shopping site.

Now eBay and Netbiscuits are putting the world’s leading platform for developing, publishing, and monetizing sites and apps across all mobile and connected devices into the hands of eBay affiliate program members.

eBay made the announcement on their Partner Network blog today: http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/en/2011/09/i'm-getting-mobile-traffic-now-what/

HTML5 and what it means for mobile - VisionMobile Research Paper

2011-06-17T15:41:48Z

VisionMobile has just lately published an interesting research paper on the impact of HTML5 on the mobile industry – and how operators can compete in the Web 3.0 era.

The paper examines the history and evolution of the web, from its humble 1.0 origin to the connected future of Web 3.0. This report identifies the key differences between web pages and apps and discusses the repercussions of a Web 3.0 model to the mobile ecosystem and how mobile operators can leverage on this new paradigm.

Some of the issues covered in this report:

- From web 1.0 to the mobile web
- HTML5 as a technology change
- The web is dead. Long live web 3.0
- What the new web means for the mobile industry
- How to lead in the web 3.0 era

Check out VisionMobile Research Director Andreas Constantinou's blog post on the report. There, you will also find a download link for the paper.

eBay CEO says mobile sales will reach $4B by year-end

2011-04-29T09:15:07Z

eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe said that eBay mobile global sales will double year-over-year, reaching approximately $4 billion in mobile gross merchandise volume by the end of 2011.

The $4 billion is double the $2 billion in global mobile sales that eBay achieved in 2010. eBay initially projected $1.5 billion in mobile sales for 2010, beating its own expectations at the end of last year.

“eBay mobile is continuing to see strong growth,” Mr. Donahoe said during eBay's earnings call. “Once again while other retailers are formulating their mobile plans, consumers are actively buying and selling through the eBay mobile app."

For the full story, please visit Mobile Marketer.

Fortune 500 brands going all in on mobile video advertising

2011-04-06T09:26:18Z

Dan Butcher, Associate Editor with Mobile Marketer, has published an article on the popularity of mobile video advertising. Please also read the article at Mobile Marketer.

April 4, 2011 - The popularity of mobile video among consumers is booming, a trend that offers plenty of opportunities for marketers to reach smartphone users with ad formats that experts see as the most effective of all.

The number of American mobile users that watch videos on their devices has increased more than 40 percent year-over-year in both the third and fourth quarters of 2010, ending the year at a grand total of almost 25 million people, according to a new mobile video report from The Nielsen Co. These consumers watched an average of four hours and 20 minutes of mobile video per month in both the third and fourth quarter of 2010, which equals a 33 percent and 20 percent YOY bump increase in each quarter respectively, per Nielsen.“If you look at smartphone growth over this same period, it’s about a 35 percent larger audience year-over year, so you could have organic growth in video consumption even with all other factors being equal,” said David Gill, Austin, TX-based vice president of client services, mobile media and marketing at Nielsen.

“That said, all other factors are not equal,” he said. “Thanks to specialized apps, finding, watching and sharing mobile video has become much easier.

“This is exciting for advertisers, because Nielsen data shows that mobile ad effectiveness measures increase substantially with interactivity and rich media—it’s exciting for publishers because video inventory CPMs are much higher than general display.”

Nielsen attributes this growth in mobile video consumption to the ever-increasing adoption of media-friendly mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

In the fourth quarter of 2009 a mere 23 percent of Americans had smartphones. In comparison, smartphone penetration grew to 31 percent by the end of 2010.

Additionally, it has become much easier to find, view and share mobile video with the proliferation of the mobile Web and application usage, Nielsen says in its report.

“I think we are at a point in the evolution of mobile advertising where, for the first time, major content producers and distributors look at the third screen and ask what is so different about this screen versus a TV other than form factor,” Mr. Gill said. “Tablets are helping to redefine this as well.

“Full commercial load television straight to mobile devices is something that was on the distant horizon two years ago, but now companies are innovating at a blistering pace to keep up with what consumers obviously want to do,” he said.

“That prospect brings real money into our ecosystem and the models will have to evolve and adapt.”

Mobile video boom

Multiple factors are contributing to the growth of mobile video including the availability of more and more full-length episodes, as well as the rapid adoption of Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Rhythm NewMedia claims that on its mobile video advertising network, 26.5 percent of users who start viewing an entire 45-minute full-length episode complete the entire episode, while more than 41 percent of users will watch at least half of the episode.

Additionally, about 50 percent of video consumption occurs over Wi-Fi networks.

“Mobile video advertising is the ideal medium for brand advertisers, as the TV-like experience of sight, sound, motion and emotion has already proven to be both effective and engaging for brand advertisers, said Ujjal Kohli, cofounder/CEO of Rhythm NewMedia, Mountain View, CA.

“As mobile video advertising is a great complement to TV advertising, it opens a huge opportunity for all TV advertisers to extend their reach,” he said.

Mr. Kohli said that in-stream mobile video advertising, where a video ad is stitched directly in front of video content, is extremely effective, having an 88 percent average completion rate across Rhythm’s network.

This completion rate far exceeds equivalent numbers for TV ads and online video ads, per Rhythm NewMedia.

On TV, consumers use DVR, channel-surf and take breaks to skip ads.

Online, consumers multitask and switch screens through video ads.

“On mobile devices, including tablets, the in-streams ads are actually watched – there is no DVR, no breaks, no channel-surfing and hardly any multitasking,” Mr. Kohli said. “Full screen in-stream mobile video ads are the most immersive form of advertising available today.

“Mobile video advertising is well beyond the early-adopter phase, as more than 200 Fortune 500 brands advertised on Rhythm’s ad network in 2010 alone,” he said.

Mobile video revolution

The smartphone and tablet form factors and the broader reach of 3G plans at decent price points are driving the mobile video revolution, according to iVdopia.

There are reasonably affordable, ultra-portable mobile devices in market that can literally do everything a PC can do for the average consumer—playing games and music, surfing the Web, accessing email and IMs and Facebook, reading and editing documents—at a fraction of the upfront cost of a computer.

Smartphones are now outselling PCs as of the fourth-quarter 2010, and more than one-quarter of Americans only access the Web through their mobile device.

The poor state of WAP browsing on earlier generations of mobile phones has evolved to HTML5 rendering that enables the true Web experience on the go, per iVdopia.

“The opportunity for brand marketers is two-fold: how do I integrate myself into content that gets distributed via mobile—the online branded entertainment model of content distribution—and also how do I engage consumers on their new, with-me-everywhere 'home screen' via the kinds of brand-friendly TV and digital creatives I'm used to doing?” said Joshua Kruter, New York-based vice president and chief marketing officer of Vdopia Inc.

“Of course, right now, there is one big catch when it comes to brand marketers: you cannot run a highly engaging, video-friendly ad in the same way you can on TV or the PC Web,” he said. “Flash 10.2 is of course Android-only and glitch-filled, Apple and BlackBerry don't support the plug-ins and every platform requires its own encoder and all the issues that entails.”

This is the big challenge point right now for mobile ads.

Mr. Kruter said that there is only so much pre-roll inventory brands can get—it is very limited due to Flash's limited availability—so marketers left with apps and the headaches SDKs bring, and flat static banners, which do not in any way connect well to the rest of a brand marketer's multimedia campaign, per iVdopia.

“At iVdopia we're currently testing, and will very soon be rolling out, some technologies that will hopefully reconcile this situation and be a true brand-enabler,” Mr. Kruter said. “We're seeing CTRs hitting 5 percent in our tests, which compared to regular banners is quite significant.

“After all, when you look at the current state of online advertising, more than 55 percent of online video dollars—more than $1.5 billion—comes from in-banner executions, which creates more engagement than pre-roll and thus captures more share of marketers' spend,” he said.

“The players who can make this super bone-simple for brands, and let them leverage their existing TV and digital video assets in a compelling way, will be the ones who capture the prize.”

Glass half-full, half-empty

While many in the industry are bullish about mobile video advertising, challenges remain.

There are two sides to the potential for mobile video advertising.

“The good news is that the advertising industry is focusing a lot of efforts in 2011 on getting Internet video advertising right and much of this work will translate to mobile video advertising in due course,” said Simon Buckingham, CEO of Appitalism, New York.

“The downside is that these trends are likely to translate after a reasonably long time lag to mobile because brands are still very fearful of controlling where their brand will appear on the mobile Internet,” he said.

“Appitalism uses profanity filters to ensure that its site is family-friendly and comfortable for Fortune 500 advertisers, for example, but mobile is still considered to be a big open expanse.”

Pace of innovation in mobile payments accelerating - Forrester

2011-04-05T14:07:46Z

Giselle Tsirulnik, senior editor at Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile MarketerMobile Commerce Daily, has taken a closer look at Forresters “Mobile Payments Enter A Disruptive Phase” report. Please also visit Mobile Commerce Daily to read the article:

April 4, 2011 - The growth of mobile payments is beginning to accelerate and Forrester Research predicts that 2011 will mark the year that near field communication becomes mainstream.

Forrester’s “Mobile Payments Enter A Disruptive Phase” report talks about the ways in which mobile payments are disturbing current payment models. Wireless carriers, alternative payments and online players such as eBay’s PayPal will all play a role in this disruption.

“Consumer product strategy professionals should anticipate different disruptive scenarios and determine the likelihood of them happening,” said Thomas Husson, Paris-based senior analyst at Forrester, in the report.

“To define the correct strategy, be it defensive or offensive, they need to measure the convenience of their new products and services,” he said. “And, at a tactical level, they shouldn’t underestimate the need to educate consumers about new payment methods.”

Breaking down mobile payments
Forrester breaks the mobile payments space into two different systems: those that use the mobile network and contactless payments systems.

Over-the-network mobile payment systems use the mobile network to initiate and process payments.

For example, buying tickets from the Fandango application to see a movie on Friday night is an example of over-the-network mobile payments.

Other examples include anything bought remotely, such as ringtones, apps from the App Store, games and other digital content.

Contactless mobile payments rely on a chip that is embedded into a mobile device such as NFC or RFID. These payments rely on point-of-sale infrastructure for the initiation and authorization of transactions.

For example, waving an RFID-enabled device in front of a POS sale terminal at a 7-Eleven, where the wave would be sufficient in initiating and processing the transaction, would be considered a contactless payment.

Various mpayment players
There are various players in the mobile payments ecosystem. The most obvious are the payment leaders: financial companies such as MasterCard and Visa, who have recently spread their wings into the mobile realm.

Additionally, POS terminal manufacturers such as Verifone and Ingenico also play a role in the mobile payments space, as they have worked to revamp their technology to accept mobile contactless payments.

Handset makers are also players in the payments space. For example, Nokia and Samsung are already shipping handsets with NFC chips built into them.

Wireless carriers play a role in mobile payments already, letting consumers purchase digital goods and services by selecting “bill to wireless account.”

Right now these types of payments have been mostly for small purchases such as for digital content like ringtones and games and such, but in the future that may change. Wireless carriers may one day take on the role of credit card companies.

Then there are the alternative payment companies, which have already made their staple online. These are the PayPals and Google Checkouts that have already earned consumer trust online and are quickly recognizing the opportunities in the mobile space.

Drivers of mobile payment uptake
“While mobile payments have been slow to penetrate the market, barriers are eroding and disruption is on the horizon,” Mr. Husson said in the report. “However, this disruption will be slow in coming.

“Mobile phones are now everywhere,” he said. “Beyond the scale they offer, these devices are increasingly smarter and open to software extensions, enabling innovation from third-party players.

“After many years of trials, NFC will finally become available across a range of different handset brands, price points, and form factors in 2011.”

Forrester identifies four key factors that will drive mobile payments: ubiquitous mobile phones, mass-market smartphones, open software platforms and millions of NFC-enabled devices.

New player and technology disturbances
As consumers and merchants become more accustomed to mobile payments, disruption in the payments space is inevitable.

“New payment methods, such as contactless schemes, aim to displace cash transactions,” Mr. Husson said in the report. “Mobile payment capabilities can also catalyze changes in related markets, such as transit systems.

“Their readers could be upgraded to accept digital tickets stored on phones,” he said. “Disruption also means that new entrants could gain market share at the expense of incumbents.”

Forrester sees disruption via existing players expanding their roles and new entrants and partnerships emerging.

However, Forester forecasts that this disruption will be slow-coming.

There are a couple of reasons why this is so. First, consumers are slow to adopt mobile payments. Right now most mobile payments are made for mobile content. In-store mobile payments have not gained traction yet.

Forrester found that only 12 percent of American adults with a mobile phone have made a mobile transaction. It is the job of the vendors and providers to create consumer demand.

Additionally, Forrester says that merchants also need to be motivated.

Another issue is the fact that the current players are still not done ironing out the issues in this space.

“Merchants, banks, and payment operators often squabble over how to divide the profits,” Mr. Husson said. “Adding new players, such as handset manufacturers and mobile operators, to an already complex value chain makes it all the more difficult to reach a consensus.”

TelecomTV Asia Pacific - Asia Report - Device numbers explode

2011-04-05T13:55:44Z

TelecomTV Asia Pacific has interviewed Joerg Krahnert, managing Director of Netbiscuits in APAC, on our metrics report findings.

Check out the video inline and please also visit: www.telecomtv.com

eBay generates $2B in mobile sales in 2010

2011-12-08T13:43:33Z

Congratulations to one of our best customers since 2003!

Here's the related article written by Mobile Marketer's Dan Butcher. More information and a video comment can be found at Mobile Commerce Daily.

EBay Inc. claims it generated close to $2 billion in global mobile sales in 2010—more than three times the mobile gross merchandise value in 2009 and considerably more than its projected total of $1.5 billion.

Mobile shopping grew exponentially in 2010 and eBay claims that its applications have achieved more than 30 million downloads to date worldwide. The company claims that users from more than 190 countries used its mobile applications last year.

“It does not surprise me and it showcases the rapid transition of shoppers to the mobile channel,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst of ebusiness and retail at Forrester Research, Cambridge, MA. “This means that maybe about 5 percent of their [total] GMV is through mobile now?

“I suspect they still have significant headroom for increasing that figure even higher,” she said.

Mobile transaction boom
In 2010, eBay claims that its global mobile sales more than tripled, generating nearly $2 billion in gross merchandise volume.

In the United States, eBay claims that its mobile sales grew nearly 175 percent year-over-year compared to 2009, generating nearly $850 million in GMV.

International sales made up more than half of eBay’s mobile GMV in 2010. Top markets include Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Britain.

Outside the U.S., the leading eBay mobile markets are Germany and Britain, which combined generated nearly one-third of eBay’s mobile sales in 2010.

The fastest-growing international eBay mobile markets are Australia and Britain.

In the U.S., clothing/shoes/accessories, mobile phones/PDAs, collectibles, jewelry/watches and toys/hobbies led in terms of mobile purchases last year.

In 2010, eBay expanded its presence to five major mobile platforms, which it claims lead to greater adoption of its applications.

Apple iPhone users continue to lead the way in mobile shopping on eBay.

Since its initial release in 2008, eBay claims that more than 15 million people downloaded its iPhone application.

EBay’s iPad application debuted as a top 10 free application and more than 35 percent of iPad owners have downloaded the application.

EBay launched mobile applications for the Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 operating systems in 2010.

Comparison-shopping became a hot trend in 2010, per eBay.

Downloads of the RedLaser iPhone application have more than tripled since eBay acquired the company in June, totaling nearly 7 million downloads to date.

Shoppers bought everything from cars and trucks to clothing, shoes and accessories through eBay’s mobile applications.

EBay claims that a purchase is made every second through its mobile applications. It said that 13 pieces of clothing, pairs of shoes or accessories are sold every minute through its applications.

Users of eBay’s mobile applications make 94 bids every minute, per the company.

Three-to-four Ferrari’s are bought every month through eBay’s mobile applications.

Diamond jewelry, designer handbags and luxury watches topped 2010’s most expensive holiday purchases via mobile.

“The nature of what they’re selling is very aligned with mobile commerce—eBay is able to use mobile devices to capture quick transactions that can be made on-the-go without significant research or may have limited-time offers or inventory associated with them,” Ms. Mulpuru said.

Google Widens Its Lead In Mobile Ads - Bulk Of Money Is Online, Not In Apps

2011-12-08T13:43:57Z

Ingrid Lunden from mocoNews.net took a closer look on IDC's figures for mobile advertising revenue:

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) announced in Q3 that it was on track to make $1 billion in mobile advertising this year; now figures just out from IDC really bring home just how far ahead it is from the rest of the pack: Google accounts for 59 percent of all mobile advertising revenue in the U.S., with the next-closest competitor, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), coming in with just an 8.4 percent share of the market, worth $877 million overall.

What’s notable about the figures is that although a lot of talk about mobile media today is focussed around apps, this is not where the majority of money is coming from in mobile advertising..

IDC estimates that of Google’s $1 billion in mobile ad revenues, only about $150 million is coming from apps, another portion from licensing fees, and the “bulk” coming from mobile web, in the form of display and search ads.

(...)

please read more at mocoNews.

EBay US mobile commerce sales soar 146pc on Cyber Monday

2011-12-08T13:44:18Z

Netbiscuits has been creating mobile solutions for eBay since 2003. Netbiscuits’ technology enables more than 65 mobile sites for eBay in eight different markets worldwide. Just recently, the mobile eBay site has been revamped for smartphones (please see press release).

Today, Dan Butcher wrote a nice piece for Mobile Commerce Daily on eBay's mobile commerce sales on Cyber Monday:

On Cyber Monday mobile commerce sales from eBay shoppers in the United States increased 146 percent year-over-year, with California, Nevada, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida leading the way as the top mobile shopping states.

Mobile shopping peaked between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST. The strong growth in mobile holiday shopping reflects increasing consumer adoption of mobile commerce, with eBay mobile expecting to generate more than $1.5 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2010, compared to $600 million in 2009.

“Mobile commerce has been growing this year, as many consumers are choosing to shop on mobile to save both money and time,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile at eBay, San Jose, CA. “The lines between in store and online are blurring as many shoppers always have their smartphone on hand, ready to scan or click for the best deal.

“With RedLaser bar code-scanning, all users need to do is point their camera, tap the phone with their thumb and listings for the exact item they are looking for will populate,” he said.

“For example, if you are shopping in-store this holiday season and see a popular electronic or fashion item on the shelf, simply scan the bar code using your eBay iPhone app and you can comparison-shop instantly with eBay.com for often the best prices.”

EBay launched its first application for Apple’s iPhone in July 2008 and has since continued to ramp up its mobile commerce initiatives.

Its core iPhone application, which is available free via iTunes in eight languages and 190 countries, has been downloaded more than 13 million times and lets users browse and buy without leaving the application.

The eBay application for the iPad debuted in the top ten most downloaded free iPad applications in the iTunes Store and delivers a tablet-optimized shopping experience to browse and buy the vast selection of products available on eBay.

EBay’s suite of mobile applications, including Selling, Classifieds, StubHub and Deals, are designed to make selling and buying possible virtually anywhere, anytime.

In 2009, eBay’s mobile gross merchandise volume (GMV)—the value of all goods sold—was more than $600 million.

EBay expects to generate $1.5 billion in GMV through mobile commerce in 2010.

Mobile commerce boom on Cyber Monday
Mr. Yankovich said that this holiday season’s strong growth speaks for itself: Mobile is the future of shopping.

Consumers are realizing more than ever that you can shop smarter by taking their phone with them when they hit the mall—or by avoiding the mall altogether.

Mr. Yankovich said that whether consumers are hunting for fashion, deals or comparing prices, eBay mobile applications bridge the gap between online and in-store shopping and put the world’s largest online marketplace right in their pocket.

A survey of mobile shoppers in the U.S. conducted for eBay by SmithGeiger LLC shows that more than half of the people who regularly shop using their phones are comfortable spending $100-plus on a mobile purchase, with 14 percent willing to spend over a thousand dollars.

On average, according to the survey, mobile shoppers spend more than $100 per month on mobile purchases.

Earlier this year, an eBay shopper purchased a Mercedes-Benz for $240,000 using their mobile phone.

A new interactive infographic application available at http://www.ebayinc.com/mobilecommerce captures eBay mobile shopping trends from Nov. 22 through Nov. 29 within the top 20 eBay product categories across eBay’s leading mobile commerce markets.

Among the findings from the past week, eBay mobile data demonstrates that the iPhone is the leading mobile platform for eBay shoppers this year, with approximately two-thirds of eBay sales during the holiday week coming from iPhone users.

The remaining third was comprised of Google’s Android, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and mobile Web users combined, and where available, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.

Mobile commerce trends
EBay’s mobile commerce infographic application reveals the following trends:

In the U.S., cars and trucks topped the list of products purchased by mobile phones, based on total mobile GMV.

Mobile phone and PDA accessories and women’s clothing led in terms of total number of transactions.

During Nov. 22 through Nov. 29, the most money was spent using mobile phones in California, Texas, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.

California was the most active state in both sales volume and number of transactions.

The clothing and accessories category accounted for the highest percentage of mobile sales in California, followed in order by cars & trucks, sporting goods, auto parts and accessories for mobile phones and PDAs.

Mobile commerce is showing strong growth worldwide.

EBay mobile commerce purchases were up 230 percent year-over-year from Nov. 22 to Nov. 29 in eBay’s top six global mobile commerce markets—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Australia.

Cars/trucks and clothing/accessories were the most popular categories.

From Nov. 22 to Nov. 29, cars and trucks led in mobile GMV in all of eBay’s top markets except for France.

Instead, French mobile shoppers focused their purchasing mostly on clothing/accessories and toys.

In sporting goods, Australians made the most mobile purchases.

Britain was by far the strongest in purchases of cars and trucks, which made up 20 percent of mobile sales, while Germany was the only country where auto parts appeared as the No. 1 category.

Canada was the only country in which collectibles ranked in the top five for the holiday week.

New eBay iPhone app
Just in time for holiday shopping, eBay recently released a new version of its core iPhone application that adds selling functionality and integrates eBay’s leading RedLaser bar code-scanning technology.

The new version bridges in-store and mobile shopping experiences so that holiday shoppers can scan to comparison-shop across a wider selection of merchandise, including electronics, movies and videogames.

Total RedLaser iPhone application downloads have tripled since eBay’s June announcement that it had acquired the RedLaser technology.

Total Selling iPhone application downloads have increased nearly five-fold since that application’s launch internationally in July.

EBay is bringing these scanning and selling features to its 13 million-plus users on its main iPhone application.

According to the Mobile Marketing Association, 59 percent of mobile consumers plan to make use of their mobile phone for shopping and planning purposes this holiday season and 64 percent of consumers plan to use their mobile phone to help scout out deals before leaving for the stores.

Scan to compare and save on gifts
With more than 200 million listings available at any given time on eBay, shoppers have access to a wide selection of merchandise right from their mobile phone.

EBay is trying to make it easier for its millions of iPhone application users to comparison-shop this holiday season, whether someone is checking out their friend’s latest gadget from the comforts of home or braving the malls this holiday season.

With the integration of RedLaser bar code-scanning technology, shoppers can scan products to find great deals using their mobile devices.

With eBay Mobile, users can research sales trends, list items and manage listings.

Users can now search for completed listings to see what similar items recently sold for.

In combination with RedLaser scanning technology, repeat sellers can scan a product and list it on eBay in 60 seconds or less.

If a user is listing a similar item sold or selling on eBay, users can simply use eBay’s “Sell One Like This” feature to create a listing that is automatically populated with information like category and item condition, a feature geared toward the casual seller.

Application users can also get access to the latest deals across eBay and choose to remain logged in to PayPal for a seamless and quick payment experience.

EBay Deal Finder app
Every savvy shopper does a little comparison-shopping.

This holiday season eBay is aiming to aid in that process with the new eBay Deal Finder, a beta tool that shows shoppers deals online for perfect gifts.

By comparing eBay listings with the same products on Web sites such as Amazon.com and BestBuy.com, Deal Finder gives shoppers access to more than 50,000 deals online.

Bargain hunters can browse deals in movies, video games, electronics, music and books and save between 10 percent and 60 percent, according to eBay.

All deals are buy-it-now items from eBay top-rated sellers who have earned consistently high ratings for their service and quick, reliable shipping.

BlackBerry users are the first to get a shortcut to some of the deepest discounts online.

The recently updated eBay app for BlackBerry smartphones offers a selection of top deals from eBay Deal Finder.

EBay data shows that BlackBerry application users are especially interested in shopping for media, electronics and other technology products on their phones, and adding eBay Deal Finder into the application will bring deals on these items straight to their smartphones.

3D fashion application
EBay has recently been developing augmented reality tools to let mobile shoppers feel like an item is part of their environment, with plans to integrate into the eBay Fashion app in December 2010.

This application will be one of the first of its kind, per Mr. Yankovich.

One tool eBay is developing will let users try on standard sunglass styles with their phone camera to see what looks best before buying.

There is even technology to detect where the hair ends and the ears start to make it look as realistic as possible.

“EBay Mobile is always focused on improving all of our mobile shopping experiences across the various platforms we support,” Mr. Yankovich said. “We have seen all ages and demographics engage in mobile commerce—you must be 18 years or older to use eBay.”

PayPal is the payment method of choice on eBay Mobile, and users can self-select to stay logged into PayPal for a streamlined check out experience.

“Just a few clicks and the item is paid for and the transaction is complete,” Mr. Yankovich said.

There are some shopping experiences unique to mobile commerce that consumers might prefer, per eBay.

“It can be much more convenient, allowing a shopper to try on an item without having to go to the mall and find that item in stores,” Mr. Yankovich said.

For example, a shopper can find the sunglass style they prefer at home or on the go, an extremely convenient shopping experience, per eBay.

This helps the fashion brands become more engaged with consumers outside the bricks-and-mortar environment, bridging the gap between online and offline.

There are also shopping experiences that are not available in bricks-and-mortar stores, only on mobile, such as using augmented reality to project a flat-screen TV in consumers’ living room to gauge if black or chrome works best with their decor.

“We have and continue to partner with fashion brands and retailers to strengthen the mobile commerce offerings,” Mr. Yankovich said. “Many fashion brands and retailers recognize the strength of mobile commerce and want to make their merchandize surface on eBay mobile or utilize RedLaser technology in their own apps.

“We are looking into having local results surface in our RedLaser comparison-shopping results, so consumers have the choice of in-store [shopping] as well,” he said.

“Even if our users may not select an eBay product every time, we are confident if they start with us first, they will be more engaged with eBay Mobile, therefore continue to come back and ultimately shop more with us.”

Sears picks multiple mobile channels to enhance holiday marketing, commerce

2010-12-03T11:17:59Z

The mobile websites of Sears Holdings Management Corp. are based on Netbiscuits. In his article Mobile Marketer Daily staff reporter Dan Butcher highlights some interesting details about the mobile strategy of Sears for the holiday season:

Sears Holdings Corp. is using multiple mobile channels, from commerce-enabled mobile Web sites and applications to QR codes, to enhance its multichannel holiday marketing strategy and drive sales.

The mobile properties for Sears Holdings' retail chains include mobile sites and the Kmart2Go, Sears2Go and Sears Personal Shopper applications for multiple operating systems. This year, Sears has been making its catalog and Sunday circular print ads interactive by adding QR codes.

"We're always listening to our customers via community sites, our own Web sites and Facebook, and we're very committed to meeting their needs centered around choice, convenience and value," said Imran Jooma, president of ecommerce at Sears Holdings, Hoffman Estates, IL.

"We want to let our customers shop whenever they want and however they want, and our customers are using mobile devices to shop," he said.

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"We using mobile to bridge print to online and in-store to online, and all of those features are available on Sears2Go and Kmart2Go," Mr. Jooma said.

Sears' location-based services help users get information such as store hours, find the nearest store location and access maps to get there as easily as possible.

The Sears and Kmart mobile sites and applications have another notable feature-buy online and pickup in-store.

"For busy customers on the go who need something now and want to avoid shipping fees, how convenient to buy using your mobile device and pick it up in store within five minutes," Mr. Jooma said. "We have a five minutes or less guarantee or you get a gift card.

"We're offering deals through the mobile devices, LBS to find the store, QR codes, buy online using mobile device and pick up today," he said. "These are all of the things we've worked on this holiday season to make it very convenient for our customers.

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Mr. Jooma said that Sears' mobile strategy starts with the notion of choice, and that he expects adoption of his company's mobile features to continue to increase steadily.

Customers will continue to use their mobile devices in a variety of ways-to research items, browse products, find the nearest store and make purchases.

"We have to be where the customers are so they can have access to our brands wherever they want, however they want," Mr. Jooma said. "If they want to shop with the device in the palm of their hand, we have to be where the customers are.

"We're seeing great growth of our mobile features and usage of mobile devices in general-we're off to a great start," he said. "Whether on a community site or a mobile device, we want to make sure no matter how they want to shop or where they are, we offer the best-in-class platforms.

"Mobile is extremely important-we're always listening to our customers and acting on their feedback, and if this is how they want to shop, we're going to make sure we have the best possible experience for them."

For the complete article please go to Mobile Marketer.

For PayPal, the Future Is Mobile

2011-12-08T13:44:39Z

For the New York Times, Verne G. Kopytoff wrote an interesting article on the online payment service PayPal, that expects to handle more than $700 million in mobile transactions this year:

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PayPal continues to look for opportunities to increase volume. In October, PayPal introduced a payment service for Web sites selling digital goods like online games, music and news articles. Facebook said it would adopt the service, which processes micropayments, or transactions of just a few dollars.

Future growth, the company says, will come from regular online payments as well as from payments made through cellphones, either online or using the phone as a mobile wallet.

“This device thing is happening furiously,” Mr. Thompson said.

One recent upgrade allows iPhone users to deposit money in their PayPal accounts by photographing a personal check.

Still, there is a long way to go. PayPal expects to handle more than $700 million in mobile transactions this year, less than 1 percent of the money processed through PayPal.

And in the coming years, it will face a number of upstarts and established players. This month, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon announced a joint venture called Isis that would use a technology called near-field communication to allow consumers to pay at checkout by waving their phone near a terminal. Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, has also demonstrated how phones with a new version of Google’s Android system would do this.

Introducing the system into phones could open up a market so big that it eventually dwarfs online retailing. PayPal is experimenting in this area through a partnership with Bling Nation, a start-up providing stickers that can attach to mobile phones, which would link to special terminals at stores.

“It’s obvious they are looking at point-of-sale opportunities,” said Zilvinas Bareisis, an analyst with Celent, a financial services research company. “How they are going to do that is still a question.”

Mr. Thompson said that there remained much to do at PayPal. Since payment systems are evolving so rapidly, he predicted that the next generation of consumers would be unfamiliar with something as basic as a check. “We are literally just scratching the surface,” he said.

Credit card companies that have partnered with PayPal may be its biggest rivals in the new mobile payments space. Already, they have mixed feelings about PayPal’s success.

On one hand, PayPal is an important customer because every day it facilitates millions of credit card transactions. But on the other hand, PayPal also threatens credit card companies by giving users the option to pay for their online purchases directly from their bank accounts.

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Please also read the complete article on the New York Times website.

Kmart ramps up mobile for the holidays

2010-12-03T11:18:43Z

The mobile websites of Sears Holdings Management Corp. retail brands "Kmart" and "Sears" are based on Netbiscuits. In his article Mobile Commerce Daily staff reporter Dan Butcher highlights some interesting details about the mobile strategy of Kmart:

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"Overall, at Kmart we're committed to provide choice and convenience to our customers," said Tom Aiello, division vice president at Sears Holdings Management Corp., Hoffman Estates, IL. Mr. Aiello said that whether customers shop through the company's Sears2go and Kmart2go applications or through each retail brand's mobile site on their smartphone device, mobile platforms provide a fast, convenient way to shop while on the go.

The applications have complete access to the full list of items and categories available on Sears.com and Kmart.com. Customers can search, browse and buy directly from their phone, then have the order shipped to their door. The new, enhanced features on the mobile applications let customers share and tweet their purchases with friends and family.

With location-based services, customers can find nearby store locations, hours and contact information. On the mobile Web site, time-starved customers can now use the buy online and pick up in-store feature, which is powered by mygofer, for instant gratification on their purchases.

Mr. Aiello said that mobile shopping is what the Internet was ten years ago and is growing at a faster rate. Sears and Kmart are betting that the popularity of "buy on mobile, pick-up in store" to continue to grow more popular in the retail sector as mobile devices are able to give customers all of the research and product reviews that are available online.

"At both Sears and Kmart, we're continually working to bring the in-store experience to the Web and smartphone devices for customers who prefer to shop online or through one of our mobile apps," Mr. Aiello said. "Through our hard work, we've been able to establish a unique digital connection with our customers-and in return, it is our customers who are driving our online innovation based on their invaluable feedback.

"A good challenge is how technology continues to evolve at a fast clip, and customers adopt that technology at record rates," he said. "We launched iPhone apps, then a mobile-friendly WAP site, Android, Blackberry apps and now iPad apps. Sears Holdings is committed to keeping pace with these technologies and providing choices to our customers."

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For the complete article please go to Mobile Commerce Daily

Washington Post - The buzz is about smartphone apps, but the mobile Web remains popular

2011-12-08T13:45:08Z

All we can say is, the Washington Post really got it:

"I've seen a lot of businesses run into trouble in the app world or new media space [and] be distracted by bright shiny objects. You don't want to chase a bright shiny object if it doesn't meet your strategic goals," said Jason Seiken, senior vice president for new media and a former http://washingtonpost.com executive."If I were running a small or medium-sized business and I could only do one or the other, I would definitely start with optimizing my Web site for mobile and worry about the bright shiny object of an app later," he added.

A handful of local companies, including Reston-based Netbiscuits, offer publishing software to format a single mobile Web page for any device. A key advantage that the mobile Web has over apps, which must be re-created for every operating system. "With the number of different devices that are coming out, it builds a very compelling case to go with the mobile Web if you're looking to build a mobile strategy," said Jerome Ferrara, senior sales manager at Netbiscuits.

Please check the full Washington Post article here.

Takeaways From Mobile Commerce Forum - Mobile Commerce Beginning To Gain Real Traction

2010-12-06T10:28:47Z

We Attended Internet Retailer's First Mobile Commerce Forum In Chicago - There were participants from numerous multi-channel retailers and online retail enablers. Companies that we interacted with and/or attended presentations included: Paypal (eBay), GSI Commerce, Macy's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Walgreens, Travelocity, and 1-800 Flowers. Among our key takeaways:

1) Mobile Already A Large Focus For Retailers - Several sessions and panel discussions focused on how a retailer can transition from a successful eCommerce strategy to a mCommerce strategy. During our conversations with retailers, we learnt that few of them are in the process of launching a mobile app or a website prior to the holiday shopping season. Interestingly, a session titled "Building a Mobile Commerce Website in 45 minutes or less" was well received. Several retailers gave real-time demonstrations of their iPhone and Android apps or mobile websites. 1-800 Flowers demonstrated that a mobile transaction could be completed in less than 10 seconds (albeit, the iPhone was connected to a Wifi connection).

2) Mixed Outlook For Mobile Apps, Positive Outlook For Mobile Web sites - Our takeaway from talking to several mCommerce technology providers was that retailers believed that a Mobile Website would provide a more seamless user experience with features such as a unified shopping cart. While a Mobile App provides a better look-and-feel, retailers felt Apps are difficult (and expensive) to develop, deploy, and maintain. On the other hand, Mobile Web sites provided retailers with a short time-to-market. So instead of "There's an app for that," perhaps the larger future will be: "There's a Mobile Website for that."

3) Internet Retailer's Mobile Commerce Data Book - The 1st edition of the data book released at the conference provides an overview of 249 retail, travel, and ticketing companies with mobile websites and apps. Interesting Dpoints Include - 1) 85% of the companies reviewed had a mobile website and 48% had at least one mobile app; 2) Per Nielsen, Mobile Retail websites with highest number of unique monthly visitors were eBay (6.4MM), Amazon (5.8MM), and Wal-Mart (2.3MM).

4) A Bullish Long Term But Mixed Near Term View On Mobile Commerce - Forrester's eCommerce Analyst, Ms. Mulpuru, presented three hyper-growth scenarios that can lead to mobile sales to increase to over 20% of all Web sales, with an inflection point coming in as late as 2020. Gartner's Retail Analyst, Mr. Hung LeHong, presented a more positive near-term outlook as Mobile could drive both Web and In-store sales by creating a complete multi-channel experience. Mr. LeHong argued that mCommerce could directly or indirectly drive up to 20% of Web sales by 2015. It seems clear to us that the retailers are investing in the Mobile Shopping experience, but mCommerce still has a long runway ahead with many external factors such as consumer shopping behavior, mobile internet penetration and bandwidth, and mobile payment systems, all playing a role.

Please also follow the link to our full note: https://www.citigroupgeo.com/pdf/SNA64624.pdf