A Startup’s Technology Starts to Accelerate M-Commerce

A Seattle-based startup that translates merchant sites to the mobile Web in a matter of minutes has doubled the number of sites it has signed up for its service in the last six weeks, according to the company's top executive. The company, mPoria Inc., now has about 30 sites signed up, including Buy.com Inc., Gamestop.com, Gifttree.com, and Moosejaw.com (operating as Moosejaw.mobi), says Dan Wright, chief executive, as a result of the company's recent introduction of a system that automates the process of creating a shopping site that can be accessed from mobile phones. “We're already seeing tremendous response,” says Wright. “We're pretty excited about the opportunity.” The accelerating move by merchants to create mobile shopping sites comes as payment processors like PayPal Inc. and Obopay Inc. are revving up efforts to handle m-commerce transactions. Redwood City, Calif.-based Obopay last month unveiled a product called Obopay Checkout that is intended to process prepaid transactions for sellers of impulse items, digital content, and venue-related items such as tickets and merchandise (Digital Transactions News, April 5). PayPal, a San Jose, Calif.-based payments-processing unit of eBay Inc., earlier this year said it would introduce an m-commerce service as part of its 1-year-old PayPal Mobile platform. PayPal has recently signed on a number of major online merchants for Internet-based payments. While mPoria doesn't process transactions, its technology could prove handy to processors, Wright argues. He says he has investigated Obopay and PayPal as potential partners. “I view [processing] as complementary,” he says. For online merchants, though, the availability of m-commerce is still very early and most haven't given much thought to payment processing beyond credit and debit cards. “There hasn't been much demand,” Wright notes. “It's fairly new. As more merchants come on [with services like mPoria], those kinds of payment services become more interesting.” Another possibility could be carrier billing systems. The company maintains shopping portals with Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and AT&T Inc (formerly Cingular Wireless). The drawback is that extended carrier billing cycles can delay payment to merchants by as many as 45 days. “The merchant isn't going to ship without getting paid,” Wright says. The problem could be smoothed out with wireless billing tied to credit cards, he says, but this alternative is likely farther in the future. With its new automated service, called GoMobile!, mPoria can bring an online merchant's site live on the mobile Web in as few as 15 minutes, Wright says. Before the new technology, the company, which is a little more than 3 years old, had to custom-build sites, starting with its first one, for Gifttree, in 2005. Merchants must provide a data feed, including everything from color schemes to a secure pipeline for submitting orders. The service, which works on most Web-enabled handsets, includes comparison-shopping and short-message-service (SMS) marketing features. The company charges a $69.99 set-up fee and then levies a monthly fee ranging from $39.99 to $99.99, depending on the merchant's number of stock-keeping units (SKUs). Mporia funnels payment data to the merchant, which then handles the transactions as it would those coming in from the Internet channel. Though the company doesn't store payment information, it does file billing addresses and other order-related data to allow for automated form-fills, Wright says. Transactions so far are mimicking those merchants see through their online stores, he says. “Some clients' transaction size is $30 or $40, but some average $300,” he says. “We have people who spend a couple thousand dollars.” As for usage, much depends on the retailer's marketing skill. “Retailers who are effective marketers are seeing rising transaction [volumes],” says Wright. “Those who are not aggressive in marketing are seeing a constant flow.” The ease of use of mobile channel has come far in the past year or so, which is also greasing the skids for m-commerce, Wright says. “The infrastructure has become a reality,” he says. “Network speeds are much faster, interfaces are better, and consumers are adopting the mobile Web.” Now, he notes, “the jump from the Internet to the cell phone is not that great.”