Author: Denny

Target to develop its own mobile payments platform

Target is developing its own mobile platform that will allow consumers to shop with their smartphones

Major retailer Target may be working on its own mobile payments service, which will allow it to better connect with consumers using smartphones and other devices. Target is the fourth-largest retailer in the United States, but it has yet to establish any significant presence in the mobile commerce space. The company had intended to use a platform developed by the Merchant Customer Exchange, but the organization has been slow in developing its mobile payments service for retailers.

New platform will serve as a type of digital wallet, storing information for consumers

While Target may be developing its own mobile payments platform, the company has not announced plans concerning the launch of the platform. It would allow consumers to pay for products with their mobile devices, however, and it will also serve as a type of digital wallet. The platform will store information provided by Target, such as discounts, and consumers can use the product to store their financial information, making the purchasing process more convenient.

Target will compete with other companies involved in the mobile payments space

Mobile Payments TargetTarget entering into the mobile payments field could bring more competition into the market. Companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung have already established footholds in this market, but they are finding it difficult to effectively connect with mobile consumers. Retailers are finding its particularly challenging to convert mobile shoppers into paying customers. By developing their own mobile payments platforms, however, they may be able to provide a more enjoyable experience for consumers that may help solve this problem.

Walmart is also developing its own mobile payments platform

Target joins Walmart in the development of a mobile payments platform. Walmart believes that its platform will allow it to better connect with mobile consumers, whom are beginning to rely more heavily on their mobile devices to get their shopping done. More retailers are expected to follow suit, developing their own mobile payments platforms while also making use of those developed by other companies. Whether or not these platforms will become popular among consumers has yet to be seen, however.

Mobile apps may be easier to find with upcoming Google Play highlights

The tech giant has said it will be using this new feature to overcome the issues in application discovery.

While user reviews can be helpful in discovering which mobile apps are better than others, among the main struggles that are found in using reviews in order to produce search results is that the quality of all reviews is not created equal.

Many mobile app reviews are vindictive, not created by real users and can be quite juvenile.

Because of this, they don’t always provide any benefit to people who are trying to determine whether or not they’ve found mobile apps that are worthwhile. As the discoverability of mobile applications becomes an increasingly challenging issue, Google has now said it has come up with a unique solution that is designed to overcome the issues currently faced by Google Play in the recommendations it makes.

The new highlights feature, which is gradually rolling out by region, should help to improve in finding mobile apps.

Mobile Apps - Google PlayThe highlights feature of Google Play is meant to help to pay attention to phrases that are commonly used within reviews. For instance, if the phrase “too many ads” appears consistently within the reviews of a specific mobile application, that term will be highlighted by Google Play and will be revealed to anyone who is considering the download of the app. Though this is admittedly far from being a complete solution to all the struggles faced by app developers in producing better exposure for their products, the hope is that it will be a considerable improvement from which things will be able to get better.

The way the review highlights will work will make it possible for people browsing through Google Play with the ability to gain insight into the trends among reviews that wouldn’t be possible simply by listing the feedback and the number of stars it has earned in ratings. The feature is being launched a bit at a time and is already being seen in the United States, though it has not yet stepped into Canada, for example.

That said, this feature for finding mobile apps is expected to make itself outward in the near future.