Source Forbes

"Meet Mike, your customer in 2015. Mike never loses sight of his iPhone.  He’s very opinionated and not afraid to share his opinion using his social media channels (whether good or bad).  He doesn’t trust advertising and only connects with brands that he feels are authentic and stand for higher purpose. He publicly admits to showrooming and has been conditioned to expect everything immediately and now."

"50% of us check our phones before we go to sleep and as the first thing after we wake up.  On the extreme side, a recent study conducted by McCann Worldgroup found that a staggering 53 percent of young people would rather give up their sense of smell right now than give up the technology that they use in their lives everyday.  Nonetheless, we are leveraging our devices to support all sorts of decisions. From what movies to watch to what car to buy, the amount of information available at consumer’s fingertips today is unprecedented.  For companies of any size, having a strong online and social media presence that connects and engages with consumers is no longer an option."

"41% of consumers have admitted to practicing “showrooming”. Today’s retailers are facing a serious threat from both online and other brick & mortar competitors where value conscious consumers check multiple sources to find the best deal, despite the level of service or expertise they may receive. To combat showrooming, retailers must do a better job of integrating their online and in-store offerings, with more stores showing the same prices and products across both platforms. In the future, companies will need take their initiatives even further to proactively protect customer interests, going as far as even warning them if they’re making a mistake, paying more than they need to pay, buying too much, or doing anything else they might regret later.  If your customer experience is fragmented across channels, you are not only missing opportunities, but you’re literally giving those opportunities away."

"We hear of Amazon, DHL and others testing drones and predictive methods to make homes deliveries faster, but why? Giving consumers what they want is not a new development – what is new is the required speed.   Consumers today live in a very fluid present and demand instant gratification. They want to get it now, see it now and get help now. Connected consumers are being ingrained to demand instant gratification.  As a result, expect your company to have no choice but to finally mirror and join the ‘now’, in all its splendid chaos, realness and excitement."

According to this, more than 90% of the total global value of transactions from mobile NFC payments was generated in the Asia Pacific region, particularly in Japan and South Korea.

"According to online media outlet letstalkpayments.com, Japan has the largest number of NFC enabled POS (>1 Million) in the world. There are more than 70 million NFC-enabled devices in Japan, according to Wireless Watch, compared with around 3 million in the US. In Japan, FeliCa (developed by Sony) is the most popular contactless payment system in Japan. FeliCa based terminals have been placed at over 1 million while MasterCard has announced deployment of 400,000 PayPass based terminals over the years."

"ComScore research indicates that in December 2010 alone, 9.8 million Japanese consumers used their mobile wallet to make a purchase; 7.6 million made a purchase in a retail/convenience store; 3.2 million purchased from a vending machine; 2.7 million paid for public transport; 2.6 million purchased in a grocery stores; and 1.5 million paid a restaurant bill all using their mobile phone. 47 million Japanese have adopted tap-and-go phones in three years. In Japan, mobile Web shopping exceeded USD 10 billion in 2009 as per ABI Research. In March 2010, the m-coupon service of McDonald’s Japan reached 4.5 million users, according to Infinita."

"Suica is a popular electronic and mobile ticketing and e-cash system in Japan. As per estimates in a report by Eurotechnology Japan, over 30 million suica cards have been issued used for around USD 10 billion worth of annual transactions. Suica cards are used for transportation fare as well as for general purchases. These cards are supported across vending machines, kiosks and retail chain stores."

"In January 2011, research company Celent had deduced that South Korea’s mobile contactless payments market will grow at CAGR of around 50%. Growth of the mobile contactless market in South Korea can be attributed to the spread of mobile contactless payment processing terminals and through interoperability initiatives. In May 2012, there were as many as 200,000 terminals in the country capable of accepting MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave. In June 2013, Korea Times reported that SK Telekom’s Smart Wallet reached 10 million users."

According to this, 14% of the Chinese consumers shop online daily, according to a report commissioned by the consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

"More than 60% of the Chinese consumers claimed they shopped online at least once a week, a percentage which is much higher than the global average of 5% daily online shopping, and 21% every week. As regards mobile shopping, Chinese consumers still ranked first. 4% of Chinese respondents said they used mobile shopping daily, 20% used it once a week and 27% once a month. The global percentages, on the other hand, were 2%, 7% and 12% respectively."

"In terms of mobile shopping, 71% of the Chinese consumers used mobile shopping , as compared to 32% for the US counterparts. 37% of the Chinese used the smartphone for dining reservation, while the percentage in the US was only 13%, 35% of the Chinese consumers purchased stock using smartphone, as compared to 5% for the US respondents."

"The same source indicates that Chinese consumers are more likely to accept mobile payments. In 2013, Square, PayPal and Tenpay’s total transaction reached USD 20.11 billion (CNY 124 billion), USD 27.09 billion (CNY 167) and USD 8.45 billion (CNY 52 billion) respectively."

"The PWC report interviewed 15,000 online consumers, covering 15 regions including Brazil, Canada, mainland China and Hong Kong, France, India and Middle East."

According to Post&Parcel, the Universal Postal Union’s member countries have demanded the organisation speed up its work to improve the flow of e-commerce through the global postal system. The Berne-based agency affiliated with the United Nations has been working to break down the barriers to cross-border e-commerce.

"The issue is seen as “critical” to the world’s postal operators as their letter volumes decline, and the UPU said Posts are “well positioned” to help particularly small and medium-sized businesses expand their sales across national boundaries."

"The organization’s Postal Operations Council – the group of 40 member countries elected every four years to direct the UPU’s technical and operational work – has passed a resolution emphasizing the need to act swiftly on the issue."

"The Council’s working groups are pushing for simplified international products and services for e-commerce shipping, ways to work more closely with Customs to reduce cross-border shipping delays, and improve the overall delivery service. This includes the development of specifications for an e-commerce package service for items up to 30kg in weight, which would include tracking, customs pre advice and supporting customer service features."

"Efforts are also underway to put in place a more effective merchandise returns service, for international consumers to easily return goods ordered online from other countries."

"Postal customers want “simple, reliable, consistent” services for e-commerce delivery, in a business worth more than $1.5 trillion according to the UPU."

“Customers say to the Post: ‘I trust you, but I need better information, better delivery options, better process’. They know we are capable of handling logistics operations, but they are also saying: ‘We need more than that, and we need it as fast as possible’,”

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