Introduction:
The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology.
Mobile commerce, also called m-commerce or m-commerce, includes any commercial transaction of sales, transfer or exchange of goods and services completed using a mobile device.
Products and services offered by Mobile Commerce:
1. Mobile Money Transfer - Mobile automated teller machine (ATM) is a special type of ATM. Most ATM's are meant to be stationary, and they're often found attached to the side of financial institutions, in stores, and in malls. A mobile ATM machine, on the other hand, is meant to be moved from location to location. This type of ATM is often found at special events for which ATM service is only needed temporarily. For example, they may be found at carnivals, fairs, and parades. They may also be used at seminars and workshops when there is no regular ATM nearby.
2. Mobile Ticketing - Tickets can be sent to mobile phones using a variety of technologies. Users are then able to use their tickets immediately by presenting their mobile phone at the ticket check as a digital boarding pass. Most numbers of users are now moving towards this technology. The best example would be IRCTC when a ticket comes as SMS to users. New technology such as RFID can now be used to directly provide a single association digital ticket via the mobile device hardware associated with relevant software.
3. Mobile vouchers, coupons and loyalty cards - Mobile ticketing technology can also be used for the distribution of vouchers, coupons, and loyalty cards. These items are represented by a virtual token that is sent to the mobile phone. A customer presenting a mobile phone with one of these tokens at the point of sale receives the same benefits as if they had the traditional token.
4. Content purchase - Currently, mobile content purchases mainly consist of the sale of ring-tones, wallpapers, apps, and games for mobile phones. The convergence of mobile phones, portable audio players and video players into a single device is increasing the purchase of full-length music tracks and video. The download speeds available with 4G networks make it possible to buy a movie on a mobile device in a couple of seconds.
5. Location-based services -The location of the mobile phone user is an important piece of information used during mobile commerce or m-commerce transactions. Knowing the location of the user allows for location-based services such as:
● Local discount offers
● Local weather
● Tracking and monitoring of people
● Data-driven mashups targeting at a hyper-local level
6. Information services - A wide variety of information services can be delivered to mobile phone users in much the same way as it is delivered to PCs. These services include:
● News
● Stock quotes
● Sports scores
● Financial records
● Traffic reporting
● Emergency Alerts
Customized traffic information, based on a user's actual travel patterns can be sent to a mobile device. This customized data is more useful than a generic traffic-report broadcast but was impractical before the invention of modern mobile devices due to the bandwidth requirements.
7. Mobile Banking - Banks and other financial institutions use mobile commerce to allow their customers to access account information and make transactions, such as purchasing stocks, remitting money. This service is often referred to as mobile banking or m-banking.
8. Mobile browsing - Using a mobile browser—a World Wide Web browser on a mobile device—customers can shop online without having to be at their personal computer. Much mobile marketing apps with geo-location capability are now delivering user-specific marketing messages to the right person at the right time.
9. Mobile Marketing and Advertising - mobile marketing refers to marketing sent to mobile devices. Companies have reported that they see a better response from mobile marketing campaigns than from traditional campaigns. The primary reason for this is the instant nature of customer decision-making that mobile apps and websites enable. The consumer can receive a marketing message or discount coupon and, within a few seconds, make a decision to buy and go on to complete the sale - without disrupting their current real-world activity.
Advantages of Mobile commerce:
- Global reach:- It allows companies to enter markets they’ve never considered before. It’s estimated that two-thirds of the adults in the world will own smartphones by the end of 2018.
- Customer Satisfaction and experience:- E-commerce already made shopping more reliable and convenient.
Consumers are given access to:
• A wider variety of products.
• More competitive pricing of products.
• Everything at one place(Mobile), No need to go and turn on the Desktop or Laptop
• Chatbots and messenger applications these services are making it convenient and easier for businesses to interact with their customers.
With mobile commerce, they still have these benefits, without requiring the need for a desktop.
3. Phenomenal growth potential:-
eMarketer expects global e-commerce sales to reach $4.058 trillion by 2020, representing 15% of total retail sales.
• Mobile e-commerce sales account for 34.5% of total e-commerce sales in 2017 and that number is growing.
And the percentage of that belonging to mobile commerce will also continue to grow, as more online retailers see more than 50% of traffic coming from mobile devices.
4. Variety of payment options:-
With the new mobile payment applications emerging, it is now possible to offer customers a diverse range of payment options.
Popular Mobile payment are:-
• Paypal
• Google Pay
• Phone Pe
• PayTm
The drawback of Mobile Commerce:
- A constant need for optimization - This isn’t so much of a drawback as it is a need to change your way of thinking when it comes to developing and managing your online store.
You will need to be aware of advancements in technology, and changes in optimization best practices to ensure your website – at least on mobile – offers a superior experience that is fast and simple to use.
- Variety Of Payment Option - The diversity of payment options is both a benefit and drawback when it comes to mobile commerce. Many mobile payment services are not available in all geographical locations, while consumers in some locations prefer one payment option over another.
- Easier for customers to compare prices - The traditional way to do a bit of comparative shopping was to know the prices of products in advance, by scanning several advertisements and catalogue before we went to any physical shop.
Alternatively, you could have moved from one shop to another, and get a great workout in the process. But mobile commerce has – again- simplified this. And most of the time this happens without you even knowing it. You can overcome this by – like your customers – constantly being aware of what your competitors are charging for the same products.
- Need to know and comply with a wider range of regulations - This is a drawback for both traditional e-commerce and mobile commerce: knowing and complying with a large number of tax laws and other regulations for all the countries you ship to.
Future Scope:
• Mobile e-commerce sales account for 34.5% of total e-commerce sales in 2017 and that number is growing.
By 2021, mobile e-commerce sales are expected to account for 54% of total e-commerce sales.
source -
(//www.bigcommerce.com/blog/mobile-commerce/#why-does-mobile-commerce-matter)
• As reported by Appjetty, 57% of mobile users would not recommend a web business if it has a poor user experience.
• According to Statista's research, the share of mobile sales in the U.S. market is expected to continue growing. It was 34.5% in 2017 and this index is forecast to rise to at least 53.9% by 2021.
No doubt, mobile commerce is a very potential place for investments. This is not just the latest fashion – it is a long-term pattern changing customer behaviour daily.
Conclusion:
Mobile commerce was considered to be a risky area because of the limitations of smartphones before. But, as time has passed by, the problems were solved one by one – the screens became bigger and smarter, and broadband mobile internet is accessible to many more customers. Today, mobile commerce's scope and benefits give lots of opportunities to the business. No entrepreneur should overlook or underestimate these capabilities.
Developing the best e-commerce solution means moving with the times. If your web platform does not have a mobile version of your client, customers are much more likely to choose your competitors instead. Only innovations and opportune marketing measures shape mobile commerce, so do not let your business fall behind.
References :
1. https://www.shopkick.com/partners/blog/the-top-10-mobile-commerce-advantages-and-disadvantages/
2. https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/mobile-commerce/#common-pitfalls-of-mobile-commerce
3.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_commerce
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