Magazines Archives - 2012 June

PayPal's 'mobile-friendly' solutions for retailers
Story 5 - E-commerce

RETAILERS in Singapore looking to capture a slice of the rapidly growing mobile commerce market can get a boost from PayPal, which has launched two solutions for mobile-optimised checkout and mobile shopping websites for businesses of all sizes. Speaking at the launch last month, Rahul Shinghal, director for PayPal Mobile Asia Pacific, said: "Mobile commerce is one of the fastest-growing trends in the retail market today as mobile devices are changing the way consumers shop and pay every day.

"PayPal is aggressively driving this change by streamlining the payment process in as little as two clicks on Webenabled mobile devices for millions of consumers and businesses across the world.

"The time is right for Singapore's retail industry to go multichannel by offering mobile-optimised checkout and mobile shopping websites to take advantage of this major change in consumer shopping behaviour."

The mobile commerce market in Singapore saw phenomenal growth from S$43 million (US$33.4 million) in 2010 to S$328 million in 2011, representing a more than 660% jump in just one year. The mobile commerce market is also forecasted to grow ten-fold to reach S$3.1 billion in 2015, according to PayPal's Online and Mobile Shopping Insights 2011 study conducted by The Nielsen Company.

"Businesses that do not have a mobile-friendly version of their website risk losing customers who become increasingly frustrated with the poor shopping experience on their smartphones. Google data shows that three out of four Singaporean businesses do not have mobile-friendly websites," said PayPal in a press statement.

The first of the two solutions enabling more businesses to increase their sales through mobile devices is the PayPal Mobile Payments Standard solution. It automatically provides merchants that accept PayPal on their websites with a mobile payment checkout optimised for mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPod and Android devices.

PayPal detects when customers are using their mobile device for the payment process and redirects them to a mobile-optimised payment page, even if the merchant's website is not optimised for mobile devices yet, the company stated.

At the same time, PayPal also announced the pilot launch of its Mobile Commerce in a Box solution. The solution enables businesses to convert their online stores into a mobile-friendly interface "all in under an hour and at no additional cost to the merchant", said PayPal.

The mobile-optimised site will have larger product photos, buttons, links and text to make it much easier to browse and shop on a mobile device, while still providing checkout in as little as two clicks, PayPal added.

Other benefits that retailers can expect include lower bounce rates, increased browsing time, higher conversion rates and, ultimately, increased mobile sales.

To use this mobile commerce solution, PayPal merchants who use ZenCart or osCommerce shopping carts can download, install and use the free PayPal Mobile Store Plugin which will convert their e-store into an operational mobile optimised store.

The two solutions will be rolled out across the Asia-Pacific in the coming months, said PayPal.

A global leader in mobile payments, PayPal experienced a five-fold jump in mobile payments in 2011, processing US$4 billion globally compared to US$750 million in 2010. This year, it is expecting the figure to hit US$7 billion. The company revealed that it has over 17 million global customers regularly making purchases through their mobile devices.

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