Tag: mobile transactions

These technologies can help to shorten lines, which could be promising for many industries.

Typically speaking, people hate waiting in line, and the fact that new data is indicating that mobile payments could help to cut wait times in a meaningful way is starting to boost its appeal to retailers, quick service restaurants, events, and other industries.

Any brand that has a business model based on rapid service will find faster transactions attractive.

In Chicago at the recent Interactive Customer Experience Summit from Networld Media Group, a number of important brands – including MoneyGram International, Dunkin’ Donuts and Taco Bell – came together to discuss the issue of wait times and the ways in which they could improve the customer experience. In their discussions, one of the most common denominators was that mobile payments and m-commerce helped to reduce the amount of time that a customer was required to wait in order to complete their full interaction with the brand for that session.

Taco Bell found that their mobile payments app helped to improve the customer experience in a range of ways.

At that fast food company, approximately 75 percent of all of the orders that are taken within their locations are customized. This, according to the Taco Bell Corp associate manager for operations, Veronica Luna. However, when the mobile app was introduced by the brand, what the company discovered was that customers had a tendency to add to their items instead of taking things away. Moreover, the average check amounts are higher among orders made by way of the app.

Furthermore, the company made it possible for customers to speed up their own experiences within the store. The customers who used the mobile app to place their orders were able to use that same app to check in as soon as they arrived at the location. This signaled to employees that the individual had arrived, so that they could begin filling that order and serve them as soon as possible. This reduced the amount of waiting for food prep and meant that the customer never needed to wait in line to actually place the order.

Moreover, with mobile payments, it meant that the customer simply needed to receive the order and leave, instead of needing to wait at a till to complete the transaction. This type of opportunity is starting to be seen to an increasing degree by different companies that are able to reduce the amount of time that customers have to wait while in the physical store locations.

Consumers prefer to shop from multiple devices

More people are starting to use their mobile devices to make purchases, according to a new report from Criteo. The report draws on analysis of 1.4 billion transactions made in 3,000 online, retail, and travel businesses. Notably, most consumers prefer to use a variety of different devices to do their shopping, but a growing number of people are beginning to use their smartphones to shop online and in physical stores.

Report shows that consumers prefer to shop for products on tablet devices

The report found that cross-device purchasing accounts for 40% of all transactions being made in the retail space. Of those purchasing on multiple platforms, 41% of these purchasing are being done on mobile devices, while 37% of these purchases are being completed with a desktop. Tablets are proving to be more popular than smartphones when it comes to mobile commerce, as the report shows that 43% of purchases are being made on these platforms. Consumers appear to favor tablets because they offer a more enjoyable and convenient shopping experience.

Retailers continue to look for effective ways to engage mobile consumers

Retailers are finding it difficult to effectively engage mobile consumers. Providing consumers with an enjoyable mobile experience has proven challenging and retailers have yet to find an effective service that can meet their needs. Retailers may have to focus on improving the mobile shopping experience by optimizing their websites to be more mobile friendly. They may also benefit from launching applications that support mobile commerce.

Mobile commerce may eventually become the favored way for people to purchase products that they are interested in

While mobile commerce has begun to grow aggressively, traditional transactions are still significantly higher. Consumers continue to favor using physical currency and payment cards to make their purchases and have expressed some concern over the security of mobile commerce. As mobile payment services become more secure, the behavior of consumers is expected to change, with more people opting to use their mobile devices to shop for and purchase products, both online and off.