Most major retail apps are transactional these days so it’s surprising that H&M has taken this long to make the upgrade, particularly as research shows that a majority of consumers expect to be able to make purchases using retail apps.

Now it just so happens that I’m on the look out for new some jeans, so I thought it was the perfect chance to see how easy it is to buy something using H&M’s Android app…

Navigation and product pages

The first thing to note is that navigating the app is extremely easy as it uses a simple layout and nice big icons that even the fattest thumbs will find easy to press.

This seems obvious, but not all app developers get it right.

The product pages are also look fantastic; although the usability may take getting used to if you aren’t someone that uses apps very often.

Personally I think they’re great as the product images fill the entire screen, with the description accessible via an ‘i’ button in the top right.

Other functions – such as additional product images and size and colour options – are available by pressing the relevant buttons at the bottom of the screen.

When you click to add the item to your bag a graphic shows the product moving up into your shopping basket, so you’re not left guessing whether it’s actually worked.

As someone who uses apps on a regular basis I feel the design is extremely intuitive and fun to use.

Shopping bag and checkout

The shopping bag gives a decent summary of your order, including the size, colour, cost and an image of the item, though it loses points by refraining from adding the delivery cost until you’ve reached the checkout. A big no-no. 

Furthermore, H&M forces new customers to register an account, which is a major barrier to purchase and a lead cause of checkout abandonment.

In fact, this is where the user experience began to fall apart in my opinion. Ideally you want a mobile checkout to be short and simple, involving as few steps as possible.

It’s no coincidence that Amazon and eBay are both incredibly successful at mobile commerce, as both have one-touch payment systems. However H&M app developers have put up several barriers to purchase, probably without even realising it.

For example, when it initially asks for your address it doesn’t stipulate whether it wants a delivery or a billing address, so I entered my home address by default.

However when it comes to delivery the app doesn’t allow you to enter an alternate address, so I had to go back and re-enter the Econsultancy office as my home address to make sure that somebody would be around to receive my order.

Another issue is that the default payment option is a monthly invoice, which I’ve never come across before and almost placed the order by accident before I realised that I had to navigate to a dropdown menu to select the credit card option.

Offering alternative payment options is best practice in ecommerce as not all customers are comfortable paying by credit card online, so H&M scores points for offering three different options including a payment slip in the parcel.

This range of options explains why H&M requires all customers to register upfront, however personally I feel that most people would expect a credit card payment to be the default option.

Navigation during the checkout process is also a problem, as if you use the back button on your handset it asks if you want to abandon the checkout process altogether.

The final nail in the coffin was the delivery options. Not only was the delivery window from April 15 to 19, which is potentially an eight-day wait for my clothes, but I found out at the very last minute that postage costs £3.90.

A survey conducted by Econsultancy and TolunaQuick found that the most popular reason for checkout abandonment was hidden charges (71%), concerns about payment security (58%) and technical problems or slow loading pages (44%).

Once you are in the checkout process, what would deter you from completing the purchase?

Unfortunately in these days of free ASOS deliveries, £3.90 was too much for me to bear, so I didn’t end up buying my new skinnies.

In conclusion…

There’s a lot to like about H&M’s app and I’m a big fan of the navigation and product pages, however in my opinion the checkout has one or two small UX issues that undermine the overall process, particularly for new customers.

One major problem is the fact that it doesn’t allow you to enter an alternate delivery address, as it means you have to go back and re-enter information which is incredibly frustrating on a mobile phone.

Forced registration, a vague delivery window, lack of upfront delivery cost and navigation issues also serve to sully the shopping experience.

Overall then, though I initially enjoyed browsing the app and looking for products, the checkout process undermines the UX and was enough to put me off making a purchase.

• Increase Mobile Conversion
• Reduce Risk of Fraud
• Deliver PCI Compliant Apps
• Securely Know Their Customer

Click on the image to download “m:Cypher – An Introduction To Secure, Frictionless m-Commerce” now, or contact Actus Mobile today

The Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) summit, the first and largest business Gathering event, will see venture capitalists and investors from the USA, China and Russia reviewing Irish start-ups and early stage companies in Dragons’ Den-style pitch sessions.

“We are looking forward to seeing Ireland’s most innovative and disruptive technologies at the ‘fast pitch’ sessions to be held at the Global Technology Leaders Summit in Cork,” said John Hartnett, CEO ITLG

Actus Mobile Solutions are an indigenous company in the field of mobile technology sector invited to pitch their business ideas to the international delegation of investors and seasoned entrepreneurs.

“There is a great opportunity for indigenous industry to meet and engage with international investors and business leaders at this international summit” said Conor Healy, CEO of Cork Chamber and partner with ITLG, Cork City Council, CIT and UCC in the Cork event.

Actus Mobile will have a 5 minute elevator pitch to catch the attention of the venture capitalists and investors.

“An incredible line up of speakers has been put together for the event, and includes Cork-grown global success stories such as Liam Casey (PCH), Barry O’Sullivan (Cisco), Rory McInerney (Intel), James Whelton (CoderDojo) and Sean O’Donoghue (Madison Square Garden) as well as significant international players such as Una Fox (Disney), Richard Moran (Accretive Solutions), Kevin Barrett (Elan Corporation) and a host of other world class speakers”.

Mobile commerce has grown considerably in recent times and it is expanding exponentially as user acceptance rates increase each month. However, these adoption rates have not matched predictions set by industry experts as end user fears over security breaches hinder overall acceptance. Current security standards SSL (secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) used are being hacked and leaking personal information to cyber criminals.

These “hackers” are predominantly targeting Android-based devices as there operating systems ‘tick all the boxes’ for cybercriminals. It’s widely used, it’s easy to develop for, and those using the system are able to download programs (including malicious programs) from wherever they choose.

By contrast, iOS is a closed, restricted file system, allowing the download and use of apps from just a single source – i.e. the App Store. This means a lower security risk: in order to distribute code. Although there are ways around this, “jail breaking” (freeing it from its locked-down status in order to run unauthorized software) which used to be for hard-core techies is becoming the norm for mobile users. These days anyone can do it with any one of the available online tutorials. “Jail breaking” also allows users to have access to any and all third-party apps that they wish to run.

However it’s likely that, for the time being at least, Android will remain the chief focus of cybercriminals. There are more and more reports emerging that Android apps are leaking users’ personal data. There are now numerous claims from a rage of studies that apps are not secure with SSL/TLS. One example is researchers in Germany conducted a study which composed of a manual audit of 100 apps and were able to launch Man-In-The-Middle attacks against 41 apps, gleaning sensitive data in the process.

“From these 41 apps, we were able to capture credentials for American Express, Diners Club, PayPal, bank accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live ID, Box, WordPress, remote-control servers, arbitrary email accounts, and IBM Sametime, among others,” claimed the researchers.”

The ease with which apps can be created and the wide variety of application markets have combined to shine a negative spotlight on the security posture of the Android platform and increasingly the IOS platform.

These fraudulent attacks are leading to an increase of card fraud. In fact, according to the ACI Worldwide Global Fraud Report, fraud is on the increase with 14% of debit and credit card holders having experienced fraud multiple times during the past five years; this is compared to just 6% in 2011. One in four (27%) of consumers claim to have been the victim of credit, debit or pre-paid card fraud during the past five years – and this can have a serious impact on consumer behaviour.

After experiencing card fraud, 56% of cardholders use cash or an alternative form of payment instead of a debit or credit card. Furthermore, of cardholders who received replacement cards as a result of a data breach or fraudulent activity in the past year, 46% used the new card less than the original. Retailers may well feel that this doesn’t impact them as they will get cash payments instead, but it’s actually the retailer that the consumer will blame for fraud. And, if the retailer hasn’t taken the appropriate steps to protect against fraud, they can be liable to cover the cost.

It is therefore vitally important for retailers to be part of the fight against fraud, take appropriate measures and work with issuers and consumers to cut card fraud – and protect against liability. With the appropriate mobile technology the liability can be transferred from the retailer to the end-use i.e. by using “Four-Factor Authentication”.

If retailers take these steps, they can avoid losing customers or ending up seriously out of pocket. The highly organised nature of financial crime and the advancement of a fraudsters’ technological toolkit can badly strike the pockets of consumers and retailers alike. Retailers need to take precautions and consumers need to be constantly educated about best practices to avoid becoming a victim.

This proves that security threats are much more prevalent in smartphones then we know. Security companies, E-commerce providers, App developers’, Retailers and end-users need to adjust faster than the enabled cybercriminals to protect against mobile fraudulent transactions. The need for multi-factor authentication and non repudiation technologies is much more predominant to incorporate and use effective secure mobile transaction platforms to stop these “man in the middle” threats. If companies do not address these security issues in the future, fraud attacks against mobile commerce users.

“Actus Mobile are particularly pleased with a Bronze award, being in such a strong category and bowing out to the overall winner on the night shows how tough the competition in that category was. The award is attributed to one of our international clients Liverpool John Lennon  Airport (myJLA App) and being awarded an Appy shows the recognition of the company’s efforts so far as we plan to expand  into the travel, retail, health and leisure sectors in the UK market next year. ’ commented Tony Burke, Co-Founder & CTO Actus Mobile.

Actus Mobile develop mobile based solutions for businesses including app developers to maximise the opportunity in the mobile applications and mCommerce markets.  Apps and mCommerce give carriers and providers in this sector an innovative way of engaging with their passengers and customers thus providing an experience that builds loyalty as well as creating ancillary revenue opportunities.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport is part of Peel Airports Limited. ‘The Liverpool John Lennon Airport app will allow our passengers to begin their travel experience from the minute they book and will keep them fully-informed wherever they are,’ commented Katie Elliott, head of marketing at Peel Airports Ltd. ‘It’s part of our strategy to grow our business in partnership with the passengers and the airlines and for us to become a leader in mobile commerce.’

AIB Merchant Services is working with Actus Mobile Solutions, a mobile commerce services provider, to process payments made with the ‘myLJLA’ Liverpool John Lennon Airport app, thought to be the first fully-integrated, secure, mobile-commerce airport smart-phone app. The myLJLA app is unique in allowing passengers to pay for a growing range of airport-related products and services such as car parking, fast track through to the departure lounge and premium lounge access.

Read more here

Android applications run in a sandbox, an isolated area of the system that does not have access to the rest of the system’s resources, unless access permissions are explicitly granted by the user when the application is installed. Before installing an application, the Play Store displays all required permissions: a game may need to enable vibration or save data to an SD card, for example, but should not need to read SMS messages or    access the phonebook. After reviewing these permissions, the user can decide whether to install the application

Although mobile security makes headlines every day — with harrowing statistics, the fact that approximately 40% of U.S. mobile users will click on an unsafe link this year — the biggest trend in mobile vulnerability however is related to apps.

The sandboxing and permissions system lessens the impact of vulnerabilities and bugs in applications, but developer confusion and limited documentation has resulted in applications routinely requesting unnecessary permissions, reducing its effectiveness. Several security firms, such as Lookout Mobile Security and AVG Technologies, have released antivirus software for Android devices. This software is ineffective as sandboxing also applies to such applications, limiting their ability to scan the deeper system for threats.

Research from security company Trend Micro lists premium service abuse as the most common type of Android malware, where text messages are sent from infected phones to premium-rate telephone numbers without the consent or even knowledge of the user. Other malware displays unwanted and intrusive adverts on the device, or sends personal information to unauthorised third parties. Security threats on Android are reportedly growing exponentially; however, Google engineers have argued that the malware and virus threat on Android is being exaggerated by security companies for commercial reasons, and have accused the security industry of playing on fears to sell virus protection software to users. Google maintains that dangerous malware is actually extremely rare.

However, about 100,000 Android apps, of the 650,000 total apps in Google Play, were recently considered “suspicious” or “questionable,” according to research conducted by security software firm Bit9. Although not all of the apps were deemed malicious, they performed questionable tasks and have access to private information, which present a risk to enterprises.

This research further proves that this type of malware is much more prevalent in smartphones and security companies need to adjust faster than the cybercriminals to protect consumer’s smartphones. The need for multi-factor authentication is much more predominant for security companies to incorporate and to use effective mobile security platforms to stop these deeper system malware threats.