Payment specialist paythru has joined forces with mFabrik to offer bundled services to brands for the creation of a sales channel via the mobile Web and applications. 

The new service will be of interest to any organization, from retailers to charities, that wants to benefit from the increasing consumer demand for mobile commerce. This growth in consumer demand is being driven by the explosion in sales of smartphones—49 percent increase in sales in the first quarter 2010 according to Gartner—and all-you-can-eat data packages from carriers.

“MFabrik is a Finnish company that is expanding rapidly in the UK,” said Keith Brown, managing director of paythru, London. “They do a lot of outreach work taking the ecommerce propositions and putting them into compelling mobile propositions for consumers.

“Many companies not yet oriented to mobile, haven’t yet optimized their experience for mobile, and mFabrik turns concept of the client into something that is very usable by the consumer, while our mobile payment solution offers the highest level of integrity and security.

“They’re building the consumer experience—mobile Web sites and apps—and we’re putting the payment option in behind that as a seamless transition.”

Paythru provides bill issuers with an alternative payment channel, letting consumers pay through their mobile phones via SMS, WAP sites and applications.

MFabrik is a mobile services and technology provider that specializes in integrated mobile Internet platforms.

The company’s clients include Apollo Cinemas, Swiftcover, Nivea, London City Airport and the Finnish Broadcasting Co.

We support payments through WAP, SMS service and next week we’re launching our SDK for in-app billing for Android, iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry Java platforms.

“We are targeting the same vertical market sectors in the U.K.—charities, retailers, local government and retail, sectors where clearly mobile is both established in non-established,” Mr. Brown said. “The virtual goods market is established, but the non-virtual market is not.

“We’re both targeting non-virtual sectors, mobile macropayments for physical goods and services,” he said. “We figure out how to mobilize a rich complex experience on the Internet.”

Payments via SMS, WAP or app
Mr. Brown said he is confident that mcommerce will shortly reach its tipping point with mass adoption being driven by the all-you-can-eat data plans, 3G access and new handsets delivering browsing speeds close to that of fixed-line access.

The impact of these developments can be seen in statistics from Buzz City (February 2009) with 87 percent of users accessing the mobile Internet more than once a day and 50 percent accessing it more than five times a day.

Paythru and mFabrik’s service covers everything from the design and development of a mobile Internet site through the integration with existing online sales channels to the implementation of mobile payments and associated merchant services and accounts.

Paythru’s secure mobile payments platform lets consumers spend what they want, when they want, where they want, through any Internet-enabled mobile phone and using any bank or credit card.

Paythru claims to be the only mobile payment platform that is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, delivering the same standard of security as retail bank and card issuers.

MFabrik uses its in-house mobile services platform Apex Vertex to deliver Internet content and interactive services to all Internet-enabled mobile phones.

Mr. Brown said that consumers are increasingly expecting to be able to buy products and services when it is convenient for them, and that often means on their mobile phone when they are on the move.

“Mobile payments still immature,” Mr. Brown said. “The ecosystem is still nascent, but we think it’s a gathering storm.”