The Mobile Money Network™ Blog

MMN in the Retail Hall of Fame

Congratulations to our chairman Sir Stuart Rose who was inaugurated into the World Retail Hall of Fame at the World Retail Congress this week. He said: ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed and continue to enjoy in my roles with the businesses I am now involved with.’

And at the Retail Bulletin Mobile Summit 2012

This week our Chief Operations Officer and IT Director Jeremy Barden appeared on the mobile payments panel of the Retail Bulletin Mobile Summit 2012 alongside representative from Waitrose, ASDA, Carphone Warehouse and the Javelin Group. Lively discussion ensued around the subject of customer engagement and cost-effective mobile retail strategies. More information can be found here.

Making payment personal

Starbucks have announced that they’ll sign to Passbook by the end of September. Since they’ve got a store card already, it’s a no-brainer and will give them broader scale distribution. After investing $25m into Square, Starbucks are in a mode of experimenting with m-commerce. Now Square have raised $200 mil, they’re valued at $3.25 bn and have predicted that they’ll process $8bn of payments this year. However Visa inc will process $6.3 trillion payments this year and have a market value of $90 billion. Square evidently have a long way to go and Jack Dorsey needs to get mass adoption from big retailers if he’s going to maintain $3.25bn valuation.

In March, Square appointed ex PayPal VP Alyssa Cutright as their VP of International. The UK is an obvious target and we’d love to work with them. We’re thinking along similar lines by using data to recreate the intimacy of a corner shop. Similarly, Square creates the same feel by pulling up a photo of the customer and their regular purchase on-screen when they arrive at the counter.

The future of multichannel retail 

CBRE are the biggest property in advisor in the world, so we shouldn’t be surprised that they’ve reported that multichannel will complement rather than compete with bricks and mortar retail. The Guardian reports that online retail sales increased to 17% of the retail market or £50bn last year. It’s dangerous to downplay the growth in online commerce, because it gives retailers justification for not acting.

Monetizing mobile experiences

We had the pleasure to meet Jess Butcher from Blippar last week. Blippar have a great vision about the way people are going to search and access content in future. Rather than describing themselves as an augmented reality provider, they’re a company which patch content into where you are, what you see and what you do. Like us Blippar want to expand the way mobile can be used as a bridge between online and offline with an experience which is compelling to the consumer.

The arrival of 4G in the UK will obviously benefit the consistency of experience that Blippar and augmented reality specialists like Aurasma can offer. Last week one of our associates saw a demo of the EE 4G service – it worked first time and was faster than home broadband; evidently exciting stuff for the industry as a whole.

For more news and opinion about mobile payments, follow @theMMN on Twitter.

If you’d like to get in touch, please call us on 020 7079 3930.

Follow the MMN company page on Linked In.

View post

Welcome to The Mobile Money Network blog. Rather than just using this space to talk about the exciting things we’re getting up to, we’ll also be providing insightful opinion and thought leadership about the business of mobile commerce. Things are developing rapidly in this world and we’ll be analysing how these changes affect retailers, banks and multi-channel media companies.

The story so far

If you want to know more about our business then watch Mobile Money Network: The Story So Far. Featuring contributions from our chairman Sir Stuart Rose and Retail Week‘s George MacDonald, it serves as an introduction to the mobile payments revolution which is changing the face of retail right now. This year, 35% of retail traffic will be via mobile and by 2020, Visa expects 50% of transactions to run through mobile devices.

The Economist on QR Codes 

QR Codes have been failing to become the next big thing in the UK for a while, but according to The Economist, they’re finally taking off. One of the reasons they haven’t worked is that consumers need an incentive to scan, be that a competition, giveaway or the opportunity to buy. The feature crucially ignores what happens when you monetize QR codes. Purchasing with a QR code turbo-charges the offering and gives the consumer an instant hit.

Booming in-store smart phone usage

Mobile Commerce Daily says we’re addicted to using our smartphones and 33% of us would apparently rather play with our phones than have sex! When it comes to shopping, the figures are even higher. A report from Tradedoubler found that 42% of smartphone owners in Europe are going online in stores to check prices, read reviews and get product information. The next step for retailers is to capitalise on the smartness of these phones by offering the consumer a virtual shop assistant on their mobile. While consumers won’t want to download an app for every retailer in the land, our Simply Tap app can offer this service, and undoubtedly, the virtual assistant will be better informed than its human counterpart.

Mobile banking snack culture

This week a Forrester Report said that US banks were spending one third of their digital budget on mobile this year. We’re surprised the figure isn’t higher. In the UK, mobile banking has become an accepted channel, in fact NatWest customers are making more log-ins via their mobiles than their computers. They’re using their devices in different ways to interact with banks – mobiles use is characterised by ‘snacking’ for example, checking balances, making payments on the move, while bigger screens are used for more in-depth tasks. The upshot is that consumers are becoming more in-touch with their finances and building a familiar and trusting relationship with mobile banking and payments.

PayPal can go further

One of the benefits of mobile payments is that you won’t have to remember to take your wallet out with you. This week PayPal released a video showing how much easier it will be to go shopping in Aurora stores and Pizza Express with a mobile phone. While we’re all for mobile payment iniatives, we’re keen to look at the whole retail process. For the retailer, payment comes right at the end of a journey which includes marketing and getting the right consumers and products through the door. To develop the mobile payment space and benefit consumers and retailers, we need to innovate at each stage of the chain.

Media coverage

Mobile Money Network was in the media last week when our Simply Tap/Thornton’s Best of British offer was mentioned by Lorraine on her daytime ITV show.

We’re also gaining attention in social media land with the innovative Virtual Vinyl Store which has been produced from a collaboration between Simply Tap, Liam Gallagher’s fashion label Pretty Green and Universal music. As well as offering music lovers the chance to purchase classic vinyl and participate in a music quiz, we’re offering a great trip to see the Stone Roses play in Japan.

In an incisive piece in yesterday’s Guardian, our MD, John Milliken, called for retailers to respond quickly to the fundamental shift in consumer behaviour that is being caused by mobile phones. The article has been creating some noise on social, and is definitely worth a read and a RT!

Out and about

This week our team are attending Etail Europe and the British Retail Consortium’s Retail Symposium. Please come and say hello if you’re there too. We’re keen to exchange information and ideas across the industry, and actively encourage you to pass our blog onto your colleagues. If you want to contribute, please post a comment or contact us. Follow our journey here or @theMMN for daily hits.

View post