Barclays has added two new mcommerce features to its Barclays Pingit application to let consumers purchase goods from a mobile Web site, app or even an advertisement.

The first new feature, “mobile checkout,” lets consumers pay for mobile purchases in just a few clicks. The second feature, “Buy it,” lets consumers scan a QR code to buy a product directly from an advertisement.

“The reason for doing all of these solutions is because the consumer experience is the same regardless of the channel they’re trying to use,” said Mike Walters, UK head of corporate payments at Barclays, London.

“So they log on using a five-digit PIN into a secure app to pay friends, buy goods, donate to charities, all of that consumers are doing in one place,” he said. “It’s not the consumer’s job to figure out how to pay, it’s our job.”

Mobile checkout
Mobile checkout will let businesses include a Pay with Barclays Pingit button on their mobile sites and apps. When consumers click on this button, they will be directed to the app and be able to confirm their details and shipping information in just a few clicks.

This means that consumers can avoid having to type in all of their shipping and billing information. By taking out the extra steps, Barclays is aiming to increase conversions.

Without the mobile checkout option, consumers may have selected a number of goods to put in their shopping basket, but when they arrived at the checkout stage, they did not want to devote the time and effort to typing in all of the information on a mobile device and therefore abandoned the transaction.

According to Harris Interactive, 68 percent of consumers try to make a purchase on a mobile device. However, two-thirds of those abandoned a purchase because of issues with the payment platform.

The Barclays app is available for free in Apple’s App Store, Google Play and Blackberry World.

Buy it
Through the “Buy it” feature, consumers will be able scan a QR code on an advertisement to purchase the product that is being advertised.

When a consumer scans the code, he or she will be able to view price, merchant information, delivery information and stock levels. The consumer can then proceed to make an actual purchase via the Pingit app.

Not only will businesses be able to increase conversions with this new feature, but they will also be able to accumulate data on traditional advertising to see which posters or displays are driving more conversions.

“Barclays is making it easier to do more than just make a payment because we’re making it easier for the consumer to order the goods, actually we’re in a slightly different place in the consumer journey,” Mr. Walters said. “With Buy it, we’re a little further down the process, so we’re kind of saying that we can help you corporates and merchants to drive this interaction. It’s not just about the payment, it’s about how easy can we make it for someone to purchase.

“You don’t normally see banks outside of the payment mechanism at the end,” he said. “By moving this further up that value chain, we’re able to make the whole user experience that much better.”

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York