Smartphones and tablets have already changed the way we access information and consume content, but now they are also changing the way we shop.
According to a report by e-commerce research outfit Yankee Group, mobile payments could total more than $1 trillion by 2015. Although m-commerce is hardly a new concept, it will become more commonplace over the next few years, as more mainstream businesses and consumers embrace it.
Speaking to QRcodepress, Yankee Group analyst Nick Holland enthusiastically concluded that m-commerce is finally going mainstream.
“It’s all finally happening. We have mobile payments now,” he said.
However, the mobile payments industry is still a complicated one. It takes in a broad spectrum of transactions, ranging from in-app purchases to physical products in brick and mortar shops. The purchases can be billed to credit cards, bank accounts, prepaid cards and a number of other services. Needless to say, it is all still a bit too much for small businesses to cope with.
Holland pointed out that Visa and MasterCard process $7 trillion worth of transactions a year, so there is plenty of room for growth.
“It’s a huge opportunity,” he said. “We’ve only just skimmed the surface”.
Holland’s advice to developers is to produce apps that won’t actually process the transactions, as mainstream m-commerce has yet to occur. The idea is to improve the transaction system with using widely available services rather than attempting to entirely replace the physical wallet at once.
