Making Commerce Creative

We know that consumers influence how merchants think about innovation – but who influences what those consumers fall in love with and want to use at those merchants? In the November issue of The PYMNTS Developer Tracker^TM, powered by Vantiv, we highlight the many ways in which developers are helping merchants surprise, delight and enable the unique commerce opportunities that set merchants apart and drive consumer engagement.

Taking Payments To The Next Level – Virtually

Is virtual reality the next frontier in payments innovation?

Developers and payments players alike seem to think so.

PayVR’s take on payments, the virtual reality edition, was compelling enough to land it the top spot at a recent hackathon, all designed to reinvent and redefine omnicommerce. PayVR’s team of developers created a virtual 3D shopping mall where customers could experience shopping just as they would in a brick-and-mortar store, along with the ability to instantly purchase any product in the store.

This isn’t just the stuff of science fiction, either, or just about shopping.

Even big name retailers are hopping onto the virtual reality bandwagon by using the technology to help consumers become part of an experience, like being able to sit in the front row at fashion shows and other one-of-a-kind experiences.

November Highlights

In this month’s Developer Tracker, it was also evident that merchants are getting creative with how commerce is presented to consumers – throwing the door wide open for developers to bring those concepts to life. From enabling payments via social media pages to allowing customers to pay at the gas pump without actually having to leave their vehicles, innovation in the payments landscape is happening at a rapid pace.

Payments technology is also getting a little more personal, with the launch of several customer-centric mobile apps and platforms with a significant focus on user experience. Mobile concierges (aka digital butlers) are growing in popularity for their ability to search, find and purchase products on behalf of the consumer.

Yet, as the availability of payments spreads, consequently so does the reach of cybercriminals. In order to help keep fraud and other threats at bay, payments players are taking a global approach to security measures. By expanding protections like tokenization across markets worldwide, merchants can help support a more secure shopping experience for consumers no matter where they are located and what channel they are using to shop.

The PYMNTS.com Developer Tracker^TM, powered by Vantiv, provides merchants with a view into the breadth and depth of eCommerce – and commerce-related – software developers and the work being done to help merchants keep pace with the multitude of providers and technologies available in the payments landscape.

We look at the developer community across three categories: Shopping and Payments, Operations, and Marketing. And, the tracker profiles 50 developers, who are all at the leading and bleeding edges of helping consumers and merchants transform the shopping and buying experience.

To download the November Developer Tracker, click here.

For more updates from Vantiv, click here.