Mobile trading to supersede the desktop? A look at customer engagement advancements via deep links in push and SMS

Today, FX brokerage solutions technology provider Leverate released a beta version of its new deep links within SMS and push notifications as part of an upgrade to platforms and systems.

One of the greatest concerns for brokerages in the retail sector these days is the ability to convert and retain customers, along with the cost associated with these aspects.

Push notifications on mobile devices have been in available from Leverate for some time now and the company has now advanced this further with the implementation of deep links in SMS as well as within the push notifications, which are now being beta tested within a controlled sample of selected brokerages.

To gain further clarity on the technical functionality of deep links, FinanceFeeds today spoke to Nicc Lewis, VP Marketing at Leverate, who explained: A deep link is a link that goes beyond a link to a landing page but directs into an action like trade on EURUSD or make a deposit.”

This means you have market insight into an even on EURUSD or you want to reactivate a trader who used to trade on EURUSD, you can push a notification with a link to trade and the link will take you logged in to the application at the point to open the trade, all you need to do is fill in the amount and press buy or sell – Nicc Lewis, VP Marketing, Leverate

Mr. Lewis further explained “The same is true for deposit – you make the trader a deposit offer and the link goes directly to the deposit form – no extra navigation or clicks from the home page.”

It is fair to say that gone are the days where mobile platform was a unique offering. Nowadays, not only are mobile platforms de rigeur but the entire dynamic among retail trading technology is moving toward mobile-first which means that the desktop platform may be overshadowed by mobile.

Last month, FinanceFeeds interviewed Alon Shmueli, Mobile Team Leader at Leverate who explained “One of the features that we are working hard to implement is the push notification mechanism which is a critical tool when you want to engage the clients.”

“One of the challenges in the implementation of this is within the Asian market, especially China which is very closed. It is very difficult to operate there with Google platforms. In terms of upoading applications to appstores, you have to use the Baidu local system, and even when wanting to use push notifications for Google we have to find different ways to do it to localize it” – Alon Shmueli, Leverate.

With regard to functionality, the new SMS and push notification system provides brokers with the ability to send traders messages that encourage them to deposit and/or trade a certain pair and direct them straight to the deposit and/or buy/sell screen within the application.

If beta testing is successful, Leverate expects to make it available to all its brokers by the next release. The second feature that will be made available on mobile is the ability for traders to join the social trading community from their smartphones.

Today, FinanceFeeds spoke to Leverate’s development team in order to take a close look at the rationale behind the new developments.

What results from the Beta testing is Leverate expecting, and how will these be analyzed within the sample brokerages for a wider rollout?

The results will be measured mainly on the technical level to determine a)how the feature works and b)how traders interact with the feature. We already know that the implementation of deep links in mobile communication is a growing trend and we are merely testing it for user experience.

The ability to engage with social trading networks via smartphones is a further step in the direction of complete mobile functionality? Do you foresee a point at which many retail firms will become mobile-led, and the desktop will begin to take a back seat?

We are already seeing this in Asia, especially China, where 90% of Chinese surfing the web do it through a mobile phone according to a recent report published by the China Internet Network Information Center.

Globally, we are already seeing over 60% of mobile users accessing financial apps for investment tasks ranging from technical research, reading analysts reports and trading.

These are tasks that are much more sophisticated than those that traders were doing a mere 3 years ago, when they used their mobile apps to check the status of their positions or exit a position quickly if the market took a downturn, but rarely to open up a trade.

Whether web platforms are doomed to disappear, it may be some time before we can make that assumption. What we can assume though is that mobile will become the preferred platform.

Talk us through the functionality that allows traders to set stop loss levels for all automatic trades and how this will stand brokers in good stead to comply with ever-increasing regulatory stringency?

As you know, social trading is being heavily regulated to avoid exposing traders to high risk due to their decision to copy a certain master. We are working closely with CySec in order to make SIRIXSocial fully compliant.

This new ability to set SL levels is implemented as part of the initial questionnaire that traders will answer when they join the social trading community. According to their answers related to their risk love/aversion level, trading preferences, financial strength and stability, etc, a recommended SL level will be set according to regulatory guidelines.

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