Mobile Commerce Minute

When we use a web browser and hit up our favourite websites we leave a footprint. The site is most likely grabbing passive data about your browser, your operating system, your screen resolution, your connection speed and a bunch more data. Now this is moving over to the mobile world as companies like Survey Analytics collect passive data to serve you better. What does that mean? Go ahead and watch the video to find out.

With transactions totalling more than PayPal and Square COMBINED this company is set to take over the US market. How you ask? Well, their 800M accounts is a start. Who are they? Watch the episode to find out.

Put down your keyboards and forget text-based search - it's time to tap the screen and get results. I'm talking about image search and two of the biggest companies want you to use their products to find what you are looking for by taking a picture. The two companies are Amazon with their newly updated app feature called Flow and Google with Google Goggles. Both companies are offering something unique but both have their own motivations. Watch the episode to see what they are and why it is important to you.

Screens are getting smarter - WAY smarter - and Pepsi's smart cooler is a perfect example. Part dispensing machine but mostly screen, this Intel-based smart box reacts to the behaviours of the buyers and collects reams of data. This is just one example of the marriage of screen and function Chuck came across at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas. There is much more to come as companies grasp this new surface-based opportunity.

Whether you call it a "holiday" or not, valentine's day is a commercial bonanza for florists  chocolatiers and lingerie shops but it was also a boon for savvy mobile-ready retailers. According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, the week leading up to valentine's day was all about love and mobile.

We all have our price when it comes to giving up a little piece of privacy. For some it will be a latte, for others a discount on something they covet. For the rest of us? How about a little value?

A simple question: Will it be actual hackers that hinder the adoption of mobile payments or will it be the threat of hackers that slows it? Chuck had an experience recently that illustrates this very problem.

For better or worse, the smartphone has gradually become the centre of all communications and, now, it is becoming the hub of the first incarnation of the Internet of Things (IoT). More and more wearables and peripherals are using the smarts of the device and low energy bluetooth (BLE) to add relevance and simplicity to our lives. Chuck takes a look at a few he bumped into while touring the floor at CES in January.

 

The United States has gone smartphone crazy as you will see by the stats Chuck presents in this episode. As adoption skyrockets, so too do the sites and apps we all interact with. Pay close attention to the commonality among the websites we visit and the apps we use from our smartphones - is this homogeneity good?

 

As consumers adopt more forms of mobile payments and retailers adapt to accept them, fraudulent behaviour begins to draw attention as well as drain bank accounts. Chuck summarizes a recent study from Javelin Strategy & Research on behalf of LexisNexis that takes a look at the impact of fraud on the nascent mobile commerce industry.