Wave Farewell to the eCommerce You Knew
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Monday was a big day for eCommerce. Apple launched iOS 8.1 and with it came Apple Pay, the service that Apple hopes will lighten the weight of your wallet and make carrying cards a burden of the past.
Already, banks are lining up by the hundreds for access to the service, as technology experts insist that Apple Pay will succeed where Google Wallet and other similar services have failed to make a splash. If they’re right, it could mean an enormous shift in eCommerce and the way you manage your funds. Even if Apple Pay positions the Cupertino giant as the current frontrunner, competition will fuel the progress that until now has only been discussed by mobile payment hopefuls. It’s an exciting time to have a bank account!
Take a look around. Many of the major players in eCommerce are leaping out of what had become 'the usual' for transactions. Add an item to a cart, checkout and wait for delivery; find an item on a site, pay with PayPal; see a link to a product on Twitter, follow the link to the purchase. Companies of every shape and size are now scrambling to be the first on the scene in what seems to be an ‘all at once’ evolution of eCommerce. What’s really exciting is that all of the moves being made by these players are potential market disruptions.
Apple had already dipped its toes in alternative payment methods before Apple Pay landed on Monday. For a while now, customers in a physical Apple Store could use the Apple Store app on their iPhone to read reviews, add items to their cart and even pay, before leaving the store with that unsettling feeling that they might’ve made an error and that a security guard would soon be on their heels. This functionality is limited to accessories, but for most it’s a glimpse into what could soon be standard. In the meantime, Apple is content securing their role in digital payments and helping you say goodbye to your physical cards. Long term, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a slogan that resonates with ‘why buy a wallet when you could buy an iDevice?'
Elsewhere, Twitter is slowly rolling out the ability to embed purchase buttons into tweets. Rather than linking to your product page, followers will have the option to click the buy button, enter their payment credentials and complete their purchase from within the tweet, delivering gratification-on-demand and ensuring that your readers have access to a product quickly and externally. For some, this could be a game changing service that enables smaller shops to direct the focus away from their site and to the product. For others, with secondary agendas tied to site visits, the service may not be as viable. The bigger picture is one of a series of services offering fewer clicks to sale conversion.
In the delivery space, Amazon is upping its game and tackling a challenge that has daunted eCommerce services since day one: same-day delivery. Select cities in the US are already reaping the rewards of Amazon’s concentrated efforts to eliminate the wait time between a purchase and delivery - one of the few reasons consumers might still opt for local retail. If expansion continues and Amazon can successfully deliver on their bold claim to have products on your doorstep the same day you click buy, it could reshape the local retail landscape. Groceries are next.
Multiple pies, with everyone vying for a piece. This is almost certainly the calm before the storm, so wave farewell to the eCommerce you knew.
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