Net Element’s primary subsidiary, TOT Group,
Inc., provides a broad array of highly flexible online and offline end-to-end
payment solutions for content providers, merchants and mobile operators working
in the burgeoning mobile payments arena. The mobile payments market is on-track
to climb 184% over the next four years in the U.S. alone to around $142B,
according to a recent report by research firm Forrester, published in
mid-November 2014.
The growth of in-person mobile payments at
point of sale (POS), led by top contenders like Apple Pay, Google Wallet,
PayPal Mobile Express, and Visa Checkout, represents a thriving market that is
anticipated by one of the top analysts at Forrester as growing to around $34B
in the U.S. by 2019. A nearly ten-fold increase over current estimates, this
projection should give investors a clear picture of how mobile device
proliferation and more robust contactless NFC (near-field communications)
payment solutions are rapidly transforming the Point-of-Service (POS) space,
which has been historically dominated by EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa)
cards. There are a number of reasons retailers are looking to upgrade their POS
footprint, and among those reasons, better integration of marketing for online
sales to mobile users with brick and mortar sales is a primary target.
So-called mobile wallet solutions like Apple
Pay have quickly become a hot topic for retailers, who are looking to cash in
on the advantageous consumer engagement metrics available through shrewdly
executed in-store campaigns that openly embrace the presence of smartphones and
tablets. With foot traffic at brick and mortar retailers off by as much as 11%
in late 2014 according to RetailNext, retailers like Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:
WMT) are now developing mobile-friendly solutions, including aspects like in-store
Wi-Fi, mobile maps and iBeacons (Bluetooth-based indoor positioning that helps
alert shoppers to deals), in order to cultivate mobile wallet users.
This is an area where Net Element thrives, with
their increasingly sophisticated portfolio of mobile payment solutions,
value-added merchant payment processing services, and software-as-a-service
(SaaS) options for realizing elegant POS. The company is well-positioned to
take advantage of the continued move by retailers towards integrating ecommerce
and in-store marketing, as the advantages of a blended, omnichannel experience
approach become more and more apparent. Huge opportunities are potentially
realizable when offering a way for consumers to interact with their favorite
brands and retailers, using tools like QR code-equipped signage that can
enhance consumer interactions and conversion rates. Attractive POS engagement
is another key to mobile customer retention, but it requires high-quality NFC
contactless, EMV-enabled point-of-sale terminals like those provided by Net
Element.
Net Element acts as a one-stop-shop for
merchants who want to be able to reliably accept cashless transactions at the
POS and the company can not only handle electronic payment processing, but
mobile ecommerce transactions as well. The company also offers merchant
terminal management and comprehensive information management services that
allow retailers to get a handle on the Big Data generated by their clientele,
further improving marketing efforts with real-time analytics that cover not
only the business architecture itself, but the customer base as well. Getting a
good sense of internal logistics and external sales metrics, or customer
engagement, are often the deciding factors that stand between success or
failure in the retail game.
The company’s cloud-based Aptito platform
(recently optimized for iOS 8.1) is a feature-rich POS platform that fully
supports in-depth business analytics and information management, granting even
small to medium enterprises the strength punch well above their weight and
deliver a variety of networked digital menu, interactive kiosk, and even
table-side ordering capabilities. Fully customizable to the actual retail
location and thus able to suit the needs of practically any retail business,
Net Element’s Aptito packages are nevertheless cheaper than comparable PC-based
POS solutions, and represent an ideal way for even small retailers to jump into
the mobile payment arena feet first.
With consumers now making fewer and fewer trips
to retail stores, preferring to shop online and whenever or wherever they
please via smartphones and tablets, as evinced by IBM Digital Analytics’ report
that showed mobile amounted to over 52% of traffic to retail websites during
Thanksgiving 2014, the need to cultivate the mobile shopper, online or
in-store, has catalyzed a fusion approach among retailers’ marketing efforts.
According to GPShopper, in-store app usage converted m-commerce sales twice as
fast last year as the rate of any other users. Since shoppers made fewer trips
to stores last year, but spent more per visit (according to RetailNext),
marketing that caters to the mobile user is becoming increasingly
indispensable.
It will no doubt soon be indisputably essential
for retailers to embrace the kinds of mobile commerce technologies provided by
Net Element in order to execute engaging m-commerce solutions and offerings
like the company’s innovative card reader app for Apple and Android devices,
which is a great example of how NETE continues to be a consumer-experience
focused developer. The company’s rapid integration of Apple Pay into their POS
acceptance hardware and software further shows how eager the company is to
cement itself as a key player in the mobile payments industry.
For more information on Net Element, visit:
www.NetElement.com
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