Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch highlights how marketers such as eBay are moving beyond smartphones and tablets for mobile commerce. However, retailers will have an uphill battle with smart watches since the devices are positioned around simple, utility-driven tasks.

Samsung showcased 12 featured applications at its launch this week, with eBay as the only commerce-enabled one, pointing to the opportunities that retailers have to rethink the shopping experience through a device that is on 24/7 and strapped to a consumer’s wrist. Smart watches could give a big boost to technologies such as near-field communication. However, given how new and small the devices are, there are significant obstacles for marketers.

EBay’s app will let consumers bid on items via their watches, and users will also be able to see if they have won an item or have sold an item. Information on counter bids, best offers and messages will also be available via the app.

According to eBay, the decision to roll out an initial app for Samsung’s Galaxy Gear watch is part of the company’s ongoing goal to experiment with every connected device that consumers access to create a seamless shopping experience.

Mobile app Vivino is another one of the companies that is launching a Samsung Galaxy Gear watch. The company’s smartphone app uses image recognition to match up photos of wine bottles with a database of 1.6 million wines.

Vinino’s smart watch app will make the photo-shooting process more discrete by letting consumers take pictures from their wrist.

Brands such as Sears, Bombfell and Domino’s are leveraging the Android lock screen to deliver full-screen ads via the Locket mobile application. Users see ads when they first wake up their phone and have the option to engage or ignore the ad. Brands have introduced ads that takes them directly to the website or a redeemable coupon code. The average click-through rate on ads so far is 8.5 percent.

Mobile Advertising Performance at a glance

Source: MobileCommerce Daily and Kenshoo Social