Digital Bytes

Streamlined shopping

Innovations from Google and Facebook give a new meaning to “going phone shopping.”

Several prominent online presences are now experimenting with direct payments. Google, long-rumored to add a “Buy” button to its existing shopping infrastructure, has begun testing “Purchases” on mobile devices.

When a shopper searches on mobile for a product, he or she may see a shopping ad with “Buy on Google” text. After clicking the ad, the shopper is taken to a retailer-branded product page hosted by Google. Checkout is seamless, simple, and secure, thanks to saved payment credentials in the user’s Google Account.

The site and purchase process will be hosted by Google, while the retailer will maintain the transaction connection to the customer. Google will charge retailers for the search-generated click, but won’t make any money off the transaction.

According to Google’s blog, mobile devices used before or during shopping trips influenced just under $1 trillion — or more than 28 percent — of in-store sales in the U.S. Google says one in five people swipe to interact with a shopping ad, expressing a desire to learn more about the featured product. So Google has developed a new enhancement that expands shopping ads as the user “swipes” them. The expansion reveals information like product ratings and availability at a nearby store. This move is designed to drive more qualified traffic directly to retailers.

For retailers, opting in to Purchases on Google could mean improved mobile conversions thanks to a simplified checkout process. Participating retailers pay for clicks on the shopping ads to the product page; but all clicks and interactions on the product page are free. While Google hosts the product page and provides purchase protection for customers, retailers own the customer communication and can offer customers the option to receive marketing and promotional messages.

Facebook is also planning to allow retailers to sell their products through their Facebook pages, according to a report by Mashable. Retailers will have the choice to allow the transaction to take place on Facebook or redirect the buyer to their own website.

The checkout process will be similar to that used in Facebook ads that use a “buy” button.

Mashable reports that it doesn’t sound like Facebook plans to make money directly off shopping transactions for now, but the new shopping and payment-related features fall in line with the company’s larger goal of keeping users in its apps and website as long as possible.

For now, the names of the participating businesses are unknown, but a Facebook spokesperson noted that a large range of retailers and e-commerce companies are involved.

Google has recently released two new cards that display situationally when a consumer is using Google on his or her smartphone. The Google Now in-store card appears when a shopper is near a store, displaying useful information such as sales, closing hours, loyalty card data, and more. When a consumer clicks “Search store inventory,” a Google-hosted, retailer-branded local storefront allows the mobile user to browse that store’s shelves 24 hours a day, from his or her phone. Also newly available is the Google Now price drop card. This card highlights a significant price reduction on a product the shopper has previously browsed, giving her a compelling reason to make that purchase now, online or in-store.

What do you think? Have any of your retail customers started selling directly through Facebook or Google? Are you excited or apprehensive about it? Email mmcclellan@gie.net with your thoughts on the topic.

iPhones are forever

Are you the type of person who needs the latest and greatest offering from Apple? Do you have several devices in your home and office that begin with a lowercase “i?” Do you own multiple hardcover copies of every Steve Jobs biography? If you answered yes to any of those questions, Sprint is offering a new cell phone plan that seems tailor-made for you. The mobile carrier’s “iPhone Forever” plan will let you upgrade every year, as soon as Apple releases its newest handset. The cost: $22 on top of your regular monthly service fees.

Whenever Apple releases a new phone, Sprint customers who are enrolled in the iPhone Forever plan can bring their existing (and woefully obsolete) iPhone to a Sprint store and trade it in for the fresh, new model. New or existing customers may be eligible to pay $15 per month instead of $22 for the first year.

While Samsung is still the global smartphone market leader by volume, Apple has been the most profitable for years. The worldwide smartphone market grew by nearly 28 percent in 2014, according to research firm IDC. That’s down from 40 percent in 2014. Apple’s undeniable iPhone outpaced the industry as a whole, with sales up 44 percent in the U.S. and doubling year-over-year in China, Brazil and Singapore.

Upgrade incoming

The staff here at Nursery Management is excited to inform you that our website will be looking rather different in the coming months. We are working on a completely redesigned and updated version of NurseryMag.com. The new site will be optimized for our fastest-growing segment of readers — mobile users.

The goal is to organize and streamline our content so that it looks great on whatever screen you’re using to read it. Whether you’re accessing NurseryMag.com from your desktop computer, tablet or phone, you should have the same excellent experience.

We have several other improvements coming down the pike, too. Expect an improved search function that makes it easier to find the article you want, and enhanced graphics that allow us to use higher quality photos.

But before we break everything and start over, we’d like to know: What do you like best about our current website? What would you like to see change? Email managing editor Matt McClellan (mmcclellan@gie.net) with any suggestions for the new site.

Please bear with us as we finalize the details, and pardon our dust as we bring you a new, better NurseryMag.com. We hope you like the new look and we welcome your feedback.