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Retailers Now Driving Mobile Commerce
Every two-sided market (economic platforms having two distinct user groups that provide each other with network benefits, such as credit cards, composed of cardholders and merchants; health maintenance organizations (patients and doctors); operating systems (end-users and developers), travel reservation services (travelers and airlines) initially has a “chicken and egg” problem.
A two-sided market only works when both groups see benefit, have access and agree to terms and conditions.
But it appears that merchants now are driving the mobile commerce market, more so than end user demand.
“Mobile commerce is at an inflection point, but it is the merchants who have to drive it,” says ROAM Data CEO Will Graylin. “Consumers will react.”
As often is the case for a two-sided market, there has to be a business case for at least one of the “sides.” before an innovation can be deployed that provides benefits for the other side.
Right now, “that’s the merchant,” says Graylin. “Mobile apps have to be compelling for consumers, but the retailers have to create the solutions.”
Mobile commerce, a combination of technologies and features, is “a fundamental shift by retailers to support smart phones and tablets in ways that help retailers find and keep customers,” says Graylin.
That’s why retailers now are driving mobile commerce: they are paying for tools they believe will help them find and keep customers. And you might argue that the “tip of the spear is use of the phone as a point of sale device,” says Graylin.
Card acceptance is a non-trivial matter, but beyond payment are a range of applications that change the ways retailers interact with consumers, in a physical or virtual setting. That includes mobile wallets, offers, coupons, mobile storefronts, checkout and loyalty, among other things.
ROAM Data has introduced a software developer’s kit that simplifies the integration of “card-present” mobile payments into applications for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
As a result, any third-party developer of mobile applications can now leverage ROAM’s mobile commerce technology platform to build secure m-commerce applications.
ROAM’s developer kit supports mobile commerce-based apps development for a range of applications including invoicing, accounting, and retail point-of-sale.
The tool kit ensures that developers comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards.
2012-08-10 14:19:07
Source: http://mobilemarketingandtechnology.com/2012/08/10/retailers-now-driving-mobile-commerce/
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