Mobile Commerce Minute

The lines are being blurred between digital and physical retail with a slew of recent announcements on consumer preferences and companies trying to capitalize on them. This episode focuses on a key few that include our shifting behaviours to gift cards, the bridging of the digital and physical worlds from your smartphone and a pure-play digital wallet offering physical cards.

Do you really like going into stores to shop around Black Friday or Christmas? Well, apparently many of us look more forward to visiting a dentist than subjecting ourselves to this ritual - yet we still do it. Why and for how long? The challenges this poses for retailers during this, their make or break season, are many but fear not, mobile can help.

Captain Kirk used it. So did Picard. If Nuance has its way, you will be able to as well. Voice authentication may be just around the corner and it could have huge implications on commerce. Passwords, credit cards and even finger prints could be a thing of the past as we authenticate and purchase our way through life with just our words.

Black Friday signals the start of the Christmas shopping season and every year we see the growing influence of mobile in the shopping and purchasing patterns of consumers. What does this year's edition look like? Bigger. Better. Less hair-pulling? According to Accenture's holiday shopping survey results, mobile's influence will be vast. So don't forget to grab a barcode reader and do a little research before buying anything.

Mobile has empowered the consumer to the point that sales people on the floor are having a hard time keeping up with their product knowledge - and this is a problem. What is the impact of this shift in power to the mobile consumer? How can retailers (or any business for that matter) help their sales people become relevant again? Watch on.

Finally, some conclusive numbers from Deloitte on how consumers use smartphones and tablets in the shopping process. If all this adds another layer of freight to your work, we have a solution at the end of this episode on where you should focus your efforts first. Take careful consideration of the experience you provide and when - it can influence a decision to buy from you or from your competitor...

The device has become an extension to our wallet but what exactly is it that consumers want to do with it? The obvious isn't so obvious and, based on a recent study released by TSYS, consumers aren't interested in doing what we think they are.

Spindle, a mobile payments company, is rolling out their services block by block, city by city, cup of coffee by cup of coffee. Chuck recently talked to Spindle CEO Bill Clark about his company and their hyper local global pursuits.  

We all understand the need to have incredible customer service as a part of our business mantra. Think back to the last time the service you received was so great that you made a point to return to that business again. Customer service is the gateway to loyalty and understanding that mobile is playing an increasingly important role in this cycle is where this episode focuses. Do it right and there is opportunity. Do it wrong - and many are - and the rest doesn't matter.

Your customers are out there, wanting to buy from you through their mobile device but YOU aren't letting them. Watch this episode for some incredible insight on what you are leaving behind by ignoring or not fully embracing the mobile experience. The question I have is who will is taking that business away from you?