Retailers are starting to experiment with adding the ability for consumers to buy products directly in app sessions from an array of partner ecosystems. The announcement from Pinterest is incredibly positive and validating for the entire e-commerce industry. At the same time it also raises questions for the retailer. It’s a great time to explore some of these questions and concerns as they relate to pushing mobile e-commerce forward.

First: The consumer wins. Allowing consumers to buy at the point of discovery is a huge time saver and conversion rates always follow. While in the path of discovery, a product is identified and the consumer wants to, and now is able to, complete the purchase immediately.

Next: The app developer ecosystem wins. A great amount of focus and app development is being spent building unique and inspiring experiences that capture the consumer’s intent. The e-commerce space is evolving and recent news shows that retailers are adapting while allowing select app developers to facilitate purchasing directly on their platforms.

Some of the challenges that app developers are actively addressing are:

• Correct Purchase Attribution — affiliate platforms limit performance, especially on mobile platforms where the old cookie attribution system is not working properly
• A consistent API that gives access to all retailers full inventory.Instead of looking to integrate individual retailer APIs, all app developers require a single stop service provider that has reliable stock information and can safely and reliably place an order for ANY product within the retailer’s inventory.
• Real-time inventory data — essential for shoppers.
• Analytics layer with granular sales data that can be used to build intelligent consumer facing experiences.

Lastly retailers who source and merchandise products have real concerns about who can have access to sell their inventory remotely. Some aspects of the interaction are essential:

• Clearly identifying who sells the product by fully displaying the product info, price, availability, retailer logo, return policy and anything else related to buying such a product.
• Automatically receiving an order in their backend system so they can make deliveries as per usual.
• Ability to send the same standard confirmation email to a shopper so they clearly know where they’re transacting from.
• Privacy and security assurances as they relate to the shopper’s data
• Analytics layer and full control over who gets access to selling their inventory
• Clear sales reporting with 100% accurate sales attribution

The Two Tap team applauds the emerging forward progress. As detailed in Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends report, e-commerce counts for 9% of Retail Sales. This percentage has doubled over the past ten years and only continues to grow rapidly.

The rise of mobile devices has caused fragmentation of online shopping consumption. It is our job, as an industry, to address the rapid shift in consumer habits while keeping the consumer engaged on the right device and at the right time.

Two Tap is addressing these challenges head on by delivering:

• Scale – Two Tap has over 800+ supported retailer integrations with over 1000 publisher relationships enabling access to hundreds of millions of products from the largest retailers. Two Tap currently serves millions of products monthly through our distribution network.
• Universality – Two Tap’s universal shopping cart allows visitors to automatically buy any product from any retailer on any device, app or website by delivering the most advanced product availability API. Two Taps universal shopping cart works on any platform 24/7.
• Retailer Control – The order payment, fulfillment and confirmation are managed by our retailer partners allowing the control and transparency to remain with the retailer.
• Reliability – Two Tap delivers real-time product availability information before any order is started.
• Security - PCI DSS certification ensures the highest level security and is coupled with a retailer’s existing fraud mechanisms.

Exciting times are ahead and The Two Tap team continues to believe in delivering:

• A universal checkout for the entire Web
• Extending and simplifying online shopping experiences everywhere
• Making transactions easy and secure
• Creating seamless shopping experiences

Are you a retailer looking to extend your reach in 3rd party apps?

Are you a affiliate looking to increase your conversion rates?

Get in touch!

We’re excited to share exciting news ahead, so stay tuned!

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Happy Shopping

The Two Tap Team