Merchant Cash Advance Blog

Businesses have long used coupons to help them sell products and drive traffic into stores. There may still be a large untapped market of consumers who want to use coupons, however - shoppers connected to their mobile devices.

Smartphone coupons are becoming mainstream, driving both dollars and new consumers to brick-and-mortar retailers, according to a report from Business Insider. However, less than one percent of all consumer packaged goods coupons distributed in the United States during 2012 were digital, suggesting that many companies are failing to grasp the possibilities offered by distributing promotions through mobile devices.

Mobile applications are helping consumers make payments more efficiently than before. However, they may also aid businesses in another way - by making their consumers more loyal.

Recently, Wanda Young, vice president of media and digital marketing at Walmart, told audience members at the Mobile Marketing Association's SM2 conference that consumers who download the retailer's mobile application spend more money than the average consumer, stated a report from Mobile Commerce Daily - and not just throughmobile credit card processing terminals. The executive also stated that consumers who downloaded their branded mobile application were twice as likely to shop in-store at Wal-Mart as the average consumer. She feels that mobile applications with attached credit card processing solutions benefit both retailers and shoppers.

The back to school shopping rush is a yearly tradition, but recent studies suggest that American consumers may be approaching their purchases in a different way this year. Findings suggest that customers are expecting more out of the online merchant account services offered to them by retailers, and that they'll turn to competitors if they provide optimized e-commerce services. Virtual credit card terminals are no longer enough to satisfy consumers - now the entire shopping process must be filtered through a smartphone.