"He Who Enrolls, Controls," So Mobile Marketing Will Drive Mobile Commerce

A new study by Juniper Research forecasts that near field communications will facilitate transactions valued at $74 billion globally by 2015 as NFC is increasingly used for the payment of goods in-store and as transport tickets.


So is that a big deal? It depends. U.S. retail spending is something on the order of $3.6 trillion to $4.7 trillion a year, by way of comparison, depending on which purchases one wishes to consider, and exclude. Also, it isn't yet clear how fast NFC-enabled mobile payments might take hold. It is conceivable other methods will grow faster.


But there are some reasons why mobile payments could grow faster. It isn't just consumer demand that will drive transaction volume, but retailer business need, that could provide the adoption trigger. 


Richard Crone, CEO, Crone Consulting, notes that mobile banking has become "table stakes."


The more important issues might be that "the entity that enrolls the customer, controls the opportunities." To the extent that mobile payments provides other values, mobile payments might simply be a vehicle for a broader effort to create a better relationship with customers.


"Service interaction in every channel is changing because of mobile," Crone says.

Apps are a way for retailers to expand their customer relationship management efforts and user base. To the extent that mobile payments changes unidentified, anonymous prospects into customers a retailer knows quite a lot about, and can reach, through multiple channels, with the right offers, at the right time, in the right place, mobile payments could grow faster than expected.

Mobile apps, for example, have a strategic role to play in the mobile commerce business, says Crone. “The entity that enrolls the customer, controls the opportunities,” says Crone.

“The second rule is that whoever loads the mobile app controls the transaction sales cycle,” says Crone.


So the increasing use of mobile devices as an alternative to credit cards and paper tickets is one of the fastest growing segments of the mobile commerce market, Juniper Research says. 


What might not be so clear is the reason for the change, or the specific implementation.