The benefits of Mobile Purchasing to be highlighted to the virtual goods sector

London, October 12th, 2010: ImpulsePay, the leading provider of Payforit services in the UK, will be highlighting the benefits of mobile purchasing at the Virtual Goods World Europe event in London this November. The company will be exhibiting at the event and its CEO, Chris Newell, will also be speaking as part of the conference.

Mobile purchasing, the ability to make a purchase using your mobile phone with the payment being taken from your mobile bill, is ideally suited to the virtual goods sector. Not only do far more people have a mobile phone than a credit card, so virtual goods retailers that offer mobile purchasing can reach a much wider audience, but mobile phones are more convenient to use for impulse purchases.

ImpulsePay’s mobile purchasing solution is based on Payforit, a service backed by all UK network operators, meaning that anyone in the UK can use the system. It’s a simple 3-step process to make a purchase and is much easier and quicker than using credit cards. In fact a transaction can be completed in only 16 keystrokes, compared with up to 120 for a credit card purchase.

“Payforit could almost have been devised purely for the virtual goods sector, the fit is that good,” said Chris Newell, CEO of ImpulsePay. “The ability to make a purchase quickly and simply on a mobile phone appeals to consumers of all sectors. While for the retailers, the set-up is quick and easy and allows them to take payments almost immediately.”

One of the biggest benefits of mobile purchasing is that it offers an easy communications method – SMS – to confirm the delivery of goods, or to offer upgrades and new purchases. With a revenue split that is similar to the 70:30 model offered by Apple’s iPhone App Store, by using mobile purchasing retailers of virtual goods can increase the lifetime value (LTV) of their customers.

Another advantage of ImpulsePay for content owners is how simple the service is to set up and use. Previously, online payments could only be completed using credit cards, SMS billing or a dedicated service such as PayPal. However, these methods often proved to be complicated to set up and cumbersome for many potential customers.

Just like SMS billing, the Payforit service works on any handset in the UK and across all networks. When accessed on mobile websites, users make a purchase in just one click, with no additional information that needs to be entered. Payforit allows simple hyperlinks to the payments page and once the transaction is complete, it returns the user to the relevant page to receive their content.

Virtual Goods World Europe 2010 is taking place from the 15th to 17th November at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel, London and will provide delegates with a comprehensive picture of the many facets to the virtual goods industry.

If you’d like to hear more from ImpulsePay please visit them on the stand at Virtual Goods World Europe, or you can listen to Chris Newell’s talk on mobile payment fraud at 12:50pm on Wednesday 17th November.