Money Moving Online

Opportunity Knocks

Even though most people today have no problem using their credit cards and services like PayPal to make online purchases, moving money from one person to another online still has a way to go. That means that the opportunity exists for some enterprising company to find a better way for consumers to make payments online. Some venture firms are funding startups in an effort to capitalize on this need while new tools are being developed to help corporations with their billing processes. Yet another idea in its earliest stages is buying items through your mobile phone. This idea is liable to generate many billions of revenue for whoever takes it on and makes it easy.

Name Recognition

PayPal got there first and that's always an advantage, since there's name recognition and the fact that it's what people know. Even so, there are still plenty of online shopping services that still insist on credit card purchases only. That knocks out shoppers without credit as well as the shoppers who are concerned with online credit card number theft. Based on this idea, some analysts suggest that it would be easy to create a rival to PayPal by giving such a service its own, neutral platform, as opposed to PayPal who is owned by eBay. Other ways to succeed against current online payment services would be to offer credit to shoppers and to lower the fees charged for transactions.

Other startups are exploring the idea that shoppers could have online banking portals where they can receive bills and make cash payments. This would allow shoppers to keep their personal credit information off of the merchant site.

PayPal and credit card companies allow for mobile phone payment on purchases and this is considered a growing market. Most Americans are still not using their phones for this purpose: only some 1.5 of U.S. consumers have done so, even though a full 50% of Americans are aware that it's possible to make purchases through their cell phones. In this case, the key to success is customer education which can be effected through a good ad campaign. Offering better services would really make mobile phone purchases take off. The latest prediction has mobile phone payments growing to around 15% in the age 18-30 crowd within the next 5 years.

Online shopping sites with any savvy will be focused on how to make it easier than ever to make mobile phone purchases. Smartphones, with their internet and email capacities, are also the wave of the future when it comes to buying through your phone. Some startup companies are even offering processing platforms to expedite using mobile credit cards which should make cell phone purchasing a breeze and a pleasure for consumers on the run.