Shopping Apps for Coming up Shopping Season
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 14 November 2011, 23:42 IST
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Bangalore: Online Shopping is the trend of today and online shopping is making it big on mobile phones and tablets as well. This is simple with a few clicks from finger tips and most of the sites prevailing today are specially meant for buyers to make their work easy. The online stores are increasing and emerging by satisfying customers needs. To bring a new change in shopping, mobiles are packed with apps that support shopping for people by giving information. All signs point to consumers spending even more online this holiday season. All of them are center around mobile, tablets, and deals. PayPal has more than doubled its mobile payments volume since the 2010 holiday shopping season. eBay is projecting $5 billion in mobile payments volume in 2010 and this number could increase in the next few months. And Google projects that 15 percent of total search on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving and one of the biggest shopping days of the year) will come from mobile devices. Tablet devices are now a part of the online shopping experiences and retailers are taking note. Clearly, all signs point to the fact that this could be the breakout year for mobile shopping. Mobile
Mobile
This would be the year for mobile online holiday shopping season. eBay expects to see $5 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2011, and this will be partly buoyed by a strong mobile presence in November and December. A number of big retailers, such as Armani Exchange, Guess and The Limited have recently put PayPal's mobile express checkout as an option for payments on their mobile sites as a way to help the conversion process. A strong investment by online retailers for mobile shopping this year is expected more. PayPal is seeing $10 million in mobile payments per day, and the mobile payments numbers could even triple from last year to this year. While many consumers may shop on mobile for their holiday purchases, the usage of product search, barcode scanning, and other informative apps will also play a big part in this year's mobile shopping. eBay's RedLaser barcode scanning apps have seen scans go up 50 percent over the past year. RedLaser will scan the barcode of a physical product and show you where you can buy it on eBay's properties and where it is available in local store locations around you and for how much. The app has been updated with PayPal functionality so that users can actually buy the product directly from the app. Another shopping app developer who has high hopes for mobile this holiday season is ShopKick. Shopkick automatically recognizes when someone with the free Android or iPhone app on their phone walks into a store. Once a Shopkick Signal is detected, the app delivers reward points called "kickbucks" to the user for walking into a retail store, trying on clothes, scanning a barcode and other actions. Kickbucks can then be redeemed across all partner stores for gift card rewards or for Facebook Credits. User can also receive special discounts on specific products at partners stores like Macy's, Best Buy or Target. Google has seen a 200 percent growth in mobile product search usage and Google Shopper app downloads over the past year. Shopper, which is available for iOS and Android, allows you to find product prices, reviews, specifications, local inventory of products at nearby stores. Google is forecasting that 15 percent of total search on Black Friday that will come from mobile.

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