One of the hottest new trends in retail, thanks to the Apple stores, is allowing retail associates in stores to complete transactions on the spot rather than making customers walk all the way to a register and stand in line to complete the transaction. Giving retail associates the tools to do this is taking customer service to a whole new level and rapidly making the cash register obsolete.
At the last Mobile World Congress, mobile payments and mobile payment systems were one of the hottest topics. We are entering an age of mobile and mobile applications taking retail to a new level, especially if you consider the opportunities offered by augmented reality.
As Charler Napier says: “Small business owners represent the segment driving mobile payments adoption most aggressively today” in an interview with Bloomberg. But we are still in the early stages of development so opportunities are abound. While we are hearing about names like Square and GoPayment right now, there are sure to be other solutions providers to follow.
In the near future cash registers are going to disappear in favor of mobile payment systems and since 66 percent of retail transactions are made with plastic today and 180 million Americans carry a credit or debit card, it’s no surprise that retailers would switch to mobile payment platforms that will change the face of retail.
If you are planning on building an app, consider integrating new mobile payment systems into your iPhone app or Android app. Passbooks and digital wallets are also extremely hot topics in the industry right now and its better to plan for the future with mobile application development.
If you aren’t sure whether your business needs to enter the mobile space with a custom designed mobile application or mobile web site, please take a moment to consider just how important mobile devices are to consumers at this point in time. In studies some participants are responding that they would go without water rather than lose their smart phone and many claim to take take their smartphone everywhere they go, including the bathroom.
Astounding new numbers from a study done by Apigee show that a staggering number that 85 percent of mobile consumers would rather go without water than their smart phone. Digging into the numbers deeper we see that it’s the mobile application function and mobile application market that is the most indispensable to consumers. Mobile apps are becoming a deeply entrenched part of consumers lives around the world as we see that in France about 20% of the population order dinner with apps only and 23% of consumers in Spain utilize apps only to find dates.
People’s lives and how they go about them is rapidly being tied into their smart phones and the mobile apps on their devices and we don’t see that changing in the near future. Businesses that are ignoring mobile applications and mobile web site are rapidly finding them selves on the outside looking in and businesses that aren’t developing for both of the major platforms are ignoring a big chunk of that market. A few years ago we steered clients towards building Android mobile applications as well but these days, pretty much every savvy business is building both iPhone applications and Android applications and often doing iPad applications if it works with the concept.
Additional data from SponsorPay shows that mobile consumers are utilizing their mobile devices for 117 minutes each day on average. These consumers are taking devices everywhere they go. According to their report 11% of mobile gamers, for instance, will play games on their mobile device while in the bathroom.
With a market that is this large and devoted, businesses must embrace mobile application development as soon as possible or risk being left behind as their competition takes their market share. How can you grab this market? What app can you build for your business that consumers will want to have on their smart phone and better yet use on a regular basis? These are the devices consumers carry with them and have in their hands, this is a tremendous opportunity for your business to position your self right in front of your consumer’s eyes.
As smart phone screens get bigger with each generation of phones and as tablets are getting smaller with each generation, we are seeing the growth of a middle area product that tends to occupy the sweet spot between the two devices. We are also finding that for many businesses mobile applications developed specifically for phablets are an optimal solution given the extra screen space, portability and ease of use.
Samsung was the manufacturer that really set the stage with the Galaxy Note and just like their campaign for the Galaxy Note II says, its a “Phone? Tablet? Best of Both.” This is a spot in the market that appears to be growing and influential. Barclays predicts that phablet shipments will nearly double and get to around 228 million units by 2015.
The larger, high resolution displays on these devices are great for high powered mobile applications and yet offer portability that tablets don’t quite match as they are so easy to hold in one hand.
This portability makes mobile applications for business uses a perfect product to optimize for phablet usage. If you have business processes that relies on data entry such as questionnaires or inventory, etc, apps specifically developed for these devices are a perfect way to streamline your processes and work with a device that is ideal for the app and activity.