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Mobile Revolution Commanding Attention – A SPN Exclusive Article

By Rick Berry in Featured

The number of smartphones has been doubling every year, and by the end of this year will exceed 125 million in the U.S. alone, about half of all mobile phones on the market in this country. In addition, Apple’s iPads have approached almost 20 million units sold to date. And they seem to have altered the way we perceive and interact with mobile commerce.

Consumers have quickly made the transition and are learning to love mobile commerce apps and web sites. This year, they’ll buy over $6 billion worth of goods and services on web-enabled phones and tablets, doubling last year’s number, and next year that number is expected to double again.

Online merchants are already cleaning up on this second e-commerce revolution. About 25% of the largest e-retailers already have a mobile site or app, most of those launched in just the last year or two. Another 25% are preparing to implement mobile commerce soon. But fully half are not ready to make the move, and virtually all second-tier e-retailers have no mobile program whatsoever.

They all need one – and fast. Estimates are that 15% to 20% of all visitors to e-commerce web sites NOT equipped for mobile are coming from consumers shopping from smart phones and tablets. If you don’t have a mobile initiative in place you had better adopt one fast or you risk losing business to your competition, perhaps forever.

Once they see your site isn’t optimized for mobile phones, they just leave and they may never come back. To avoid this crippling blow to your e-retailing business, you simply must make your move toward mobile commerce.

Brick & mortar retailers that have initiated mobile POS payment abilities in their retail operations, such as Apple and Nordstrom, have started a wave of momentum that has IT departments across the nation rushing to develop mobile payment initiatives.

Mobile in retail has received a spectacular reception because it produces a much more pleasing customer experience for one reason. It enables a purchase to be made anywhere on site while capitalizing on the impulse buying decision.

For instance, a customer in a dressing room with a number of different items or sizes now instantaneously checks out right when the impulse develops. No gathering up of packages and trudging over to a waiting line of bustling customers at the point-of-sale, where by the time the clerk gets to them, an impulse decision may evaporate and a sale can be lost.

The customer now simply hands the attending sales clerk the desired item(s), the clerk scans the product barcode with a mobile infrared scanning and payment card-swiping device (which encases an iPod), then swipes the payment card, hands the device to the customer, the signature is captured (and photo if desired) on the device and is automatically embedded on the printed and/ or emailed receipt.

Whether you’re a ‘brick & mortar’ merchant or an e-commerce online merchant, retail or wholesale, if you’re trying to sell in today’s marketplace you’d better have a mobile payment application or system in place or you risk missing sales and perhaps more.

The mobile revolution is marching to the insistent drumbeat of progress and convenience is its heralding call. When consumers use technology and become accustomed to it they begin to anticipate and expect it.

If the mobile revolution has caught your attention but you aren’t quite sure how to implement it, or capitalize on it, then you may want to Google ‘mobile POS payments’. Find out how to take advantage of and utilize mobile before it marches right on by and you miss out completely on the mobile revolution.

Follow Rick on Twitter @abcmobilepay

SMX Melbourne : All About Mobile Search

By Kalena Jordan in Featured

Live blogging of SMX Melbourne presentation by Gillian Muessig, President of SEOmoz.

Mobile is here to stay. If you haven’t already investigated how to use mobile marketing, you are already way behind.

Why do you want a community platform? Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce. Gillian mentioned LivingSocial.com – already in Sydney, very big in the US. It’s a way to get deals / coupons for things in your community. Also Groupon.com is a similar thing. These ideas are similar to @square, which is a way to pay for things using your cell phone, popular in the US and hopefully coming to Australia and New Zealand soon.

You can make your own QR code at www.qrcode.kaywa.com – download the QR code to your mobile for coupon / discount / offer / invitations / news. Mobile coupons are about levels of offers therefore all about social status.

You can also play games with QR codes. Send hints / clues / instructions etc. Data has come full circle and now gone offline. You can get your codes offline now, from billboards, physical stores etc.

Should you or shouldn’t you jump on the .mobi bandwagon? Gillian says no. It was always a stop gap measure. But DO create mobile-friendly pages. Search engines will use transcoding to auto show your page on mobile devices. Make sure your pages provide value and are designed for mobile and put them in folders on your site.

Cindy Krum is a mobile marketing evangelist and the world’s foremost authority on the subject. Gillian suggests looking at Cindy’s mobile directory list.

If you can blog, you can build an app. You don’t need a huge audience, you can make a mobile app just for your biz or your few customers.

For application building, try AppBreeder. Also, Hunch.com launches tonight – it’s a mobile community builder that allows you to build your own mobile local app on the fly. It’s a brand new service that Gillian thinks will take off after launch.

Mobile is easy, it’s out there and now is your chance to grab the opportunities in mobile marketing before your competitors do.

How Google Sees Mobile Usage in 10 Years

By Kalena Jordan in Featured

Google’s Engineering Director, Andy Rubin, has made some bold predictions on the Official Google Blog this week in relation to how we’ll all be using mobile phones in 10 years time.

Andy reminds us that the humble mobile phone in your pocket is probably ten times more powerful than the PC you had on your desk only 8 or 9 years ago. His most interesting theories for mobile usage in the future include:

Smart Alerts:  Your phone will let you know if something has happened that impacts you or needs your attention.

Augmented Reality: Your phone will tell you information about your location, desires or needs before you are even aware of them.

Instant Crowd Sourcing: You’ll be able to use your phone to review the most recent uploads of images, music, text, Tweets and blog posts by persons in your vicinity and you can go interact ith them (after receiving directions from your phone).

Sensory Perception: Weather updates, traffic reports, news events – these will all be at your fingertips the instant they are available.

Business Tool: Your phone as your meal ticket, allowing you to work remotely, track your investments, keep up with clients, build your business and increase your communication ability.

Intelligent Phones: Web 2.0 comes to mobile, where you can create apps on the fly, add content to your site and your phone will automatically download the latest updates to your favorite apps based on your preferences. Your phone *learns* based on your activity and makes it easier for you to use over time.

10 years away? Hmmm. I’m wondering if Andy has ever picked up an iPhone?