Retailer`s m-commerce pitch: Search our site by phone before you buy

BikeSomeWhere.com, one of the first online retailers to use the PayPal Mobile Checkout service announced last month, says mobile commerce orders have been coming in “from day one” of introducing the service. The cycling site is using the mobile phone version of its web site as a way to reach customers who are about to make purchases in brick-and-mortar stores, says Jeff Stone, president.

“We’re trying to reach the customer who’s shopping at a bike shop and who can do a price comparison and either purchase through the cell phone or come back to our e-commerce site and make the purchase,” Stone says. “We want people to purchase through this, but also to use it as a tool to compare prices and find we’re selling the same product at a lower price.”

Top 500 Guide

The retailer, which has been in business for six years, has used e-mail to inform its customer base of “tens of thousands” of the launch of the mobile commerce site, Stone says. He says all products available on the e-commerce site can be purchased via a cell phone. Stone would not say how many cell phone orders he has received, but says that consumers ordering through their handsets typically order just one item, such as a bike lock or a heart rate monitor, whereas they usually order several items when shopping on their computers.

BikeSomeWhere.com engaged mPoria Inc. to develop the m-commerce site. PayPal, the payment service owned by eBay Inc., has integrated its Mobile Checkout service with mPoria’s technology, which Stone says made the payment functionality easy to set up. PayPal Mobile Checkout allows retailers to accept payment through major credit card brands as well as through PayPal.

BikeSomeWhere.com, an e-retailer of cycling gear based in Miami, is one of 20 retailers and nonprofit organizations using PayPal Mobile Checkout, according to PayPal. Among the larger e-retailers on the list are DVD Empire and Moosejaw Mountaineering, a retailer of outdoor gear and apparel. DVD Empire is No. 215 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide and Moosejaw is No. 297.

Besides mPoria, PayPal says it has integrated Mobile Checkout with the offerings of payment processor CardinalCommerce and mobile marketing company GPShopper.