By Aimee Chanthadavong
As smartphones become more prevalent in the market, it is changing the way consumers are shopping as more are gaining access to online stores through their mobile phones.
Speaking to Retailbiz, Greg Walter, CEO and founder of a mobile security and payments company Qpay, says that Garter has predicted by 2013 mobile phone browsing will overtake PC browsing, expanding the opportunities for retailers.
“It’s a brand new world beyond what is currently available in the industry. Imagine being in front of your customer all the time and being able to create a POS transaction all the time,” he said.
“Mobile picks up impulse buying, which any marketer in retail will know that any connection for the ability to buy is the ability to act. Also, people would respond far better than what they see on a mobile than seeing anything on a PC.”
However, Walter warns that when it comes to mobile shopping, great risks are involved as mobile phones are far less secure than a PC.
“For the PC you may have Wi-Fi or cable connection and that’s fine but connectivity on a mobile exists through MMS, Bluetooth, online and Wi-Fi, which means there are four ways of compromising your mobile phone and way more than a computer, “ he says.
In order to address this problem Qpay has designed a process that combines the simplicity of SMS with proven IVR processes and over-the-air encryption to provide a secure payment process for a range of transaction services.
The platform enables users to securely register their details, including their name, mailing address and credit card details with Westpac that are securely kept in a “bank safe”. The information can then be accessed at any time during an online transaction through a computer generated phone call from Qpay for identity verification.
“At the end of the day retailers don’t want to get stung and so we’ve developed a model specific to mobile shopping. What we’ve done is that we’ve taken a different view and taken on the idea of unprecedented simplicity and security of why not let the customer just register their information once. That registering experience on a mobile is often unpopular because f there’s too many steps, the screen is often smaller and it’s hard to navigate with a phone keypad,” Walter says.
He also said that through this platform it will help retailers work more efficiently.
“It creates an easier and faster experience for consumers, giving retailers more sales for one and secondly it’ll give them more sales at a lower cost to the market as it eliminates the need for face to face sales. We’ve developed a humanless sales platform for retailers.”