The promise has hung around mobile for years: Just pay with your phone. When any extra inconvenience can result in a lost sale, ease and convenience are paramount. The mobile promise of engaging with a customer anywhere, and immediately converting that engagement to a sale, has been the penultimate retail fantasy. So why has it taken so long to start to see this behavior?
Well, the funny thing with a fantasy is that reality can often be a letdown. Getting back to one’s roots camping off the beaten path in a forest is great, until facing the realities of bugs, bears, and rain (unless that’s your thing – it’s not mine). Mobile might have been promising ease and convenience, but the experience for several years has been anything but. Want to buy something with SMS? Well, the carrier is going to take a large cut of that transaction, and the bill is going to appear on the user’s phone bill (which is a pain point for many US consumers). Enter payment details online? Good luck navigating that WAP page. So what’s merged the fantasy with the reality? Continue reading “Why in-app commerce is on the rise”
