PYMNTS.com Mobile Commerce Insider Series Friday Fact-Finding Mission

Think you know your mobile commerce stuff? Well then, without consulting Professor Google, do you know the answers to the following questions about what’s going on in mobile commerce right now?

Q#1: What percentage of U.S. retail sales do MCX merchants command?
A#1: According to the NRF, the merchants who collectively comprise MCX drive 37 percent of the total sales from the top 100 merchants.
Why This Matters: When MCX launches its mobile payments solution it will have already solved one-half of payments’ chicken-and-egg problem – getting merchants on board – leaving it to focus on driving consumer adoption. And, MCX, as a group, controls enough spend that it can also push back on network requirements around things such as EMV, if they so choose, which could create confusion and uncertainty for the entire merchant ecosystem.

Q#2: Which U.S. eCommerce player recently received a large round of funding from a mega-Chinese company?
A#2: ShopRunner – which was fed an investment round of $200 million by Alibaba Group Holdings, making it one of the largest investments a U.S. company has received in 2013.
Why This Matters: ShopRunner is a little known mobile commerce secret in the U.S. that now has big and deep pockets it can use to further develop its platform and capabilities. ShopRunner’s launch with American Express is a very clever move to register accounts for ShopRunner’s two-click checkout and for American Express to have ShopRunner acquire merchants for it.

Q#3: What recent product launch leverages new technology to reinvent the in-store shopping experience at the expense of NFC?
A#3: PayPal with the Beacon Launch, using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
Why This Matters: Beacon’s (and Apple’s competing iBeacon product) BLE technology essentially allows any device running iOS to connect to any other device running iOS (phones, tablets, mPOS systems, etc.) So, PayPal, in this case, can enable those of its 132 million customers with Apple devices to be given a new in-store shopping experience. Add to that, PayPal’s acquisition of Braintree, which introduces a much easier developer environment to incentivize innovators to develop new Beacon-enabled applications and PayPal’s strategy of igniting Beacon using store-branded cards, and you have a very interesting and disruptive play, driven entirely by merchants interested in getting consumers to adopt this new technology.

So, how’d you do? Okay, so let’s say you got the answers right, what about the insights? Confident that you have the insights related to those answers to apply it to your business?

Well, if you were an Insider, or more appropriately a PYMNTS Mobile Commerce Insider, you would! As an Insider, we’ll not only give you the fact base that will help you interpret what’s happening in the rapidly-changing mobile commerce space but the insights you need to apply to your own business. The Mobile Commerce ecosystem that we unveiled at PYMNTS Summer School is the framework we will use to examine this space each month. Click here to check it out.

We’re kicking things off on November 5th with our first live discussion and interactive Q&A with MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson, and a written report which will detail, inside and out, the most critical developments from across our Mobile Commerce Ecosystem so that you don’t have to keep tabs on it all by yourself!

Here’s what you’ll get:

• The Latest Player Activity, Product Launches, and Critical Data Points
• Important Insights about the Market, Player and Ecosystem Activity
• An overview of the important “movers and shakers” people and funding

In addition, the PYMNTS Mobile Insiders State of the Industry Report will feature in-depth analysis from PYMNTS.com’s Karen Webster that will explain the impact these developments have had on the marketplace and, as a result, what companies need to do to react and readjust their mobile strategies. Some of Karen’s most recent analysis includes 7 Reasons Why Apple Could Be a Payments Game Changer and Payments Breakthrough, Beachheads And Sinkholes.

Oh, and you won’t find this stuff on PYMNTS.com – this report is available exclusively to Insiders.

So, if you really want to be (and stay) on the Inside of this ever-changing mobile commerce landscape and to cut through the information clutter on a topic that is being reinvented almost daily, join the other payments professionals who have already signed up! Click here to learn how you can become an Insider.