LoopPay and Samsung Helping to Close the Loop in Omnichannel Shopping
The tectonic plates of ecommerce are moving again, this time with Samsung’s acquisition of LoopPay, a mobile wallet technology. The tech giant announced it will build LoopPay into its devices and build a holistic mobile wallet. That means Apple, Google and Samsung all have mobile payment solutions. And, not surprisingly all three manufacture mobile devices, albeit Google’s mobile device is really Motorola Mobility.
Easy mobile payment is one of the cornerstones for omnichannel shopping and some consider 2015 to be the year that ecommerce cracks this nut, the year that mobile wallets go mainstream.
The dust is just settling from the last seismic shift in bridging online and offline retail when enterprise software giants with fingers in the commerce space began snapping up ecommerce solutions, like SAP’s acquisition of Hybris or Oracle’s purchase of ecommerce software company Art Technology Group (ATG). That was step one. Mobile payment solutions are step two.
Is there a step three?
Yes, I don’t believe we’re done yet as the omnichannel commerce platform is still incomplete. I foresee one more marriage to really make the multichannel retail ecosystem user-friendly, we need to integrate the enterprise commerce platforms with the mobile payment solutions. And, it must transcend device types.
It’s great to see a competitive push for mobile wallets to go mainstream, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the larger end-to-end omnichannel ecosystem to emerge. Consumer shopping continues its dynamic evolution and it will be interesting to see where the next union happens. I’m listening for wedding bells.
Greta Paa-Kerner (@gretapk) is a guest lecturer on digital and affiliate marketing and a management consultant through Ganduxer Consulting. Visit her blog and LinkedIn profile at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/gretapaakerner
