According to a new report from BIA/Kelsey, mobile payment options are rapidly picking up steam with 40% of small businesses surveyed reporting they are now using mobile point of sale options. PayPal and Square are two of the top mobile payment options that brands are embracing. Beyond the 40% who report they are now using mobile point of sale, 16% say they will add the option within the next year.
Steve Marshall, director of research at BIA/Kelsey, states “A closer look at the data shows adoption of mobile and social varies across SMB industry sectors. The LCM data reveals professional and home and trade services are embracing mobile in a big way, with service providers essentially becoming walking POS terminals.”
Steve goes on to point out how mobile and social media are working together to transform small business, “Together, mobile and social tools are transforming the way SMBs acquire and retain customers,” said Marshall. “With the heavy use of social media, SMB marketing is quickly becoming a two-way engagement rather than a one-way promotion.”
As for how small businesses are engaging in social media, BIA/Kelsey’s report found that those that responded say they are ‘responding’ to comments, blogging, Tweeting/Updating social pages and pushing a loyalty program.
Clearly accepting mobile payments is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to utilizing mobile with small businesses as great opportunities exist for virtual displays and other ingenious ways to market products and inform customers. Augmented reality options will soon become the norm in retail rather than hovering out there as the next big thing.
New research indicates that a surprisingly large number of small businesses do not have plans to optimize their website for mobile in the near future. While it may not be expected, this certainly indicates an area of opportunity for savvy small businesses that are embracing the trends and building mobile web sites for their business.
TransFirst and ControlScan’s new report titled “Small Merchants and Mobile Payments: 2013 Survey on Technology Awareness and Adoption”, indicates that almost half (49 percent) of ecommerce merchants are aware that their websites are not optimized for mobile environments and that 17 percent didn’t know whether or not their websites are optimized for mobile or not.
This is where the opportunity comes in. While consumers have embraced mobile and the use of the mobile web, we see that just 31 percent of multi-channel businesses have a mobile web site for their business. Unexpectedly, only 37 percent of small businesses are either in the process of creating mobile web sites (15 percent) or plan to create a mobile web site in the next year (22 percent). The rest have no plans to take advantage of this rapidly growing market. 21 percent are ‘somewhat interested’ in mobile optimization and plan to maybe do something within the next couple years, 29 percent have no plans to optimize in the foreseeable future and the final 13 percent are unsure.
“Business owners who aren’t planning on creating a mobile optimized web site need to get there” said Kimber Johnson, managing director at Vanity Point. “Small businesses need to embrace these trends and guide their business towards growth and increased revenue.”
Clearly mobile optimized web sites offer huge opportunities since consumers have been so quick to embrace their use and small businesses have struggled to adopt them. Businesses willing to give the customers what they want will reap the rewards.
According to research, native mobile apps are set to become the focus of mobile marketing efforts for retail businesses.
According to recent research by Flurry, users are spending a great deal more of their time with mobile devices interacting with apps than with the mobile web (by a 4 to 1 margin). This study was closely followed by a second study with research by Artisan that indicates that retail executives have put a priority on investing in native mobile apps as a top item for 2013.
Artisan’s survey of 200 retail marketing execs found that almost 75% strongly agree or agree that investing in a native mobile apps is one of their top three priorities for this year. Additionally, about 66% of these execs believe that investment in native apps is a better bet than investment in mobile web sites and 71% believe that native mobile apps will become the number 1 consumer touch point during the upcoming years.
Clearly native mobile apps are poised to step even more into the spotlight than they have already been in the past few years and we are seeing the market develop in productive ways as the industry matures.