How Etisalat is using Mobile Connect and Virtual Mall to set a new standard in digital commerce

George Held, Vice President, Etisalat

A little while ago, I explained how data is fundamentally changing the nature of commerce by reintroducing a personalised consumer experience. In so doing, I demonstrated a number of ways in which operators can use data to improve the customer journey and strengthen the relationship between consumer and merchant.

The collection, analysis and use of data in mobile commerce is closely connected with digital identity – an issue widely recognised to be crucial in enabling more convenient and secure payments. To this end, Etisalat have been working alongside other operators, SIM vendors and digital service providers to develop Mobile Connect, the industry-wide digital identity initiative, designed to enhance privacy and digital services through secure and convenient log in.

Mobile Connect is at the heart Etisalat’s Connected Commerce programme and has already been used for secure authentication for Etisalat’s Virtual Mall. Virtual Mall itself is a cutting edge end-to-end consumer experience, combining  elements of mobile, online, and brick-and-mortar channels.

The Virtual Mall displays lifelike representations of products through interactive video walls, digital kiosks, and mobile applications. The interactive display contains a guide to each product, which can then be bought over the counter, or delivered later. Mobile Connect’s attributes sharing mechanism are utilised by the Virtual Mall to support highly intelligent suggestions as to what each shopper might like to purchase.

The Mall contains a variety of goods including: groceries, pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, fashion and utilities all in one physical location, allowing customers to use one shopping cart and one check-out for all their needs. Mobile Connect enables a streamlined shopping experience where customers do not need to repeatedly enter their delivery address, shopping preferences or other personal information.

Upon paying for goods, customers can pay for their goods in various ways: Using Mobile Connect, they can authorise payment through a one-time password sent by SMS, or they can enter their card details using Etisalat’s mobile Point of Sale (POS) proposition ‘Mobile Cashier’, which transforms mobile phones into an industrial-grade payment acceptance tool.

In effect, Mobile Cashier enables businesses to use mobile phones to accept cards, cash, cheques, and mobile phone-based payments in a secure, convenient, and easy-to-use fashion. Through a combination of Mobile Connect and national identity programmes, Mobile Cashier is able to automatically validate the identity of merchants and delivery recipients.

As part of our strategic engagement with UAE’s Roads and Transportation Authority, the Virtual Mall has already been commercially launched and continues to be rolled-out across a number of metro stations in UAE. By allowing additional authentication methods such as PIN requests or biometrics, Etisalat’s Virtual Mall is designed with flexibility and scalability in mind.

Etisalat’s Connected Commerce program delivers fully interactive brand experiences through an elegant combination of mobile, retail, and commerce channels, all designed to deliver a deeper and wider relationship with consumers, drive local economies, and enable new opportunities for innovation. Etisalat’s Virtual Mall will be fully showcased inside the GSMA Innovation City at Mobile World Congress 2016.