The Bulk SMS One-click Challenge
“The single-click technology is critical to support impulse transactions on mobile devices” Billing Revolution CEO, Andy Kirsch commented. What he is referring to here is PayPal’s partnership with Billing Revolution to empower online merchants with one-click transactions on the mobile devices of clients, who wish to pay without disclosing any financial information. Quite appropriately, PayPal states that it’s “the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online”.
It’s an innovative idea and places further emphasis on the usefulness of the mobile phone. But that also made us think: can similar functionality be achieved with the use of bulk SMS? Here’s our take on the subject:
Selling Books with SMS – A Fictional Situation
We’ve created a fictional company called Abecedarians R’ Us, who deal in both new and second-hand books, which registered users can buy via SMS. Using fliers, local radio stations and billboards, they advertise their service, instructing potential clients to visit their website. Clients can then create a secure profile listing on the website, where they’ll also be able to enter their reading preferences, enter their payment details and supply a secure phrase that will be used to authenticate transactions. As an incentive, the bookstore provides a 10% discount on all initial purchases by sending an SMS to registered users’ phones via bulk SMS. The API (Application Programming Interface) employed in this case is HTTP/S.
When new titles come in they are sorted according to a variety of criteria and compared to a customised ‘preference’ field for each user profile in the database. Where there’s a match, the applicable user’s details are automatically entered into a comma-delimited text file. After the matching completes, the text file containing the names, numbers and other appropriate details of potential buyers is uploaded to the server. Using bulk SMS via the FTP API, the new titles, as well as their prices, are sent to the applicable handsets. Interested users need only reply with a number corresponding to the title they want to buy. Again the HTTP/S API is employed to receive incoming messages. However, before the transaction is finalized, a call-back function is employed to trigger a confirmation SMS. The user does this by replying with the secure phrase during the registration process. Should you be think of employing this strategy in the USA, you’ll need to make use of a short code to be able to receive replies from your customers via SMS.
The HTTP/S API receives confirmation and triggers a system event that will check access the user’s database entry to confirm the preferred method of payment. Again, the call-back function is employed to trigger a request for confirmation from the buyer regarding the method of payment. Once the buyer has confirmed, the transaction gets processed and the appropriate titles get marked for delivery to the user’s address.
As time ticks by, our transaction volume grows, which means we need a more robust way of communicating with our clients. By employing the SMPP API instead of its HTTP/S counterpart, we are able to send out more messages in less time, with the added flexibility of using our own SMPP-enabled software. An added benefit is that we can now employ synchronous packet delivery to ensure that each bulk SMS message returns a status before the next one gets sent – message integrity and delivery is of the utmost importance.
The Single-click Challenge
Can our little bookshop rise to the single-click challenge? Sure, but only by assuming that a single reply from a user will indicate a willingness to purchase and the confirmation thereof. To compromise, a one-hour cancellation can be granted. When the cancellation window expires, the buyer is alerted, again through the use of bulk SMS.
While the above illustrates a fictional situation, it does provide some insight into the application of the various SMS Gateway API’s to get bulk SMS messages delivered and received and make real mobile commerce a reality.
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Tags: bulk SMS, Bulk SMS messaging, Bulk SMS text messaging, Clickatell USA, mobile commerce, mobile messaging, SMPP, SMS API's
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2 Comments On This Post
There is a massive change underway in the mobile media market as it becomes unshackled from the operators’ portals that have dominated it for a decade, all without having made any significant inroads into the content use of mobile users. The new capped data packages, fuelled by further competition, will see a total revamp of the mobile media market. It will no longer be based on portals but on direct services by content and services providers via open source phones and mobile-friendly Internet-based services. The next step is the continued emergence of m-commerce and in particular m-payment services.
Very good concept, I like how you convey the message.