‘Customer demand’ is the motivating factor behind online retailers extending their mobile commerce offerings according to poll

‘Customer demand’ is the motivating factor behind online retailers extending their mobile commerce offerings according to poll

Research conducted by payment processing and security provider WorldPay has today revealed research findings that shows customer demand is driving online retailers toward offering m-commerce transactions, and plans are in place to implement projects in the next one to two years.

The research, carried out with 109 senior managers at the Internet Retailing Conference in London, revealed that at present, only 29% of businesses currently offer m-commerce solutions for customer payments. Of all those polled, 80% revealed plans to add mobile offerings in the next 24 months, and a further 14% of respondents indicated they were likely to roll out this channel in three to four years.

Delivering on customer expectations

Nearly two thirds (60%) of those polled felt that the greatest driver for offering m-commerce stemmed from the customer’s expectation of being able to complete transactions across mobile devices. One in ten respondents said they would only be likely to extend their platforms to m-commerce in order to ‘keep up’ with competitors, while a further 11% said they would upgrade because modern technology makes mobile transactions possible.

Respondents also identified a range of challenges to the successful adoption of m-commerce solutions. 28% of those surveyed believed that technological capability is the biggest barrier, while 18% felt it was data security. Less than one in ten (8%) thought the risk of fraud was a concern, and 15% and 13% respectively perceived the cost of processing the payment and the overall payment process as the biggest challenges.

Turning hype into reality

Gabriel Hopkins, WorldPay head of e-commerce products, said: “M-commerce has long been spoken about but is now becoming a reality through technological advances and customer demand. It is encouraging to see that merchants have plans in place to implement m-commerce capability in the very near future. The technology available now makes this possible and merchants will need to look at ways to improve their online and mobile shopping experience for consumers to ensure these channels reach their full potential.”

The management survey’s findings support recent research also conducted by WorldPay, which found that despite recent developments in mobile payments, 39% of smartphone shoppers are frustrated by the length of time it takes to complete an m-transaction.