The Gradual shift from e-commerce to m-commerce — Part1

Retail purchasing has seen a phenomenal change since last decade, earlier when customer used to run to markets to purchase stuff, now he just needs internet connection with a working device and he is all set for shopping with goods delivered at his doorstep.

And now we see a shift in that as well, when earlier people had an obligation to have a desktop/laptop for shopping now they can purchase stuff or get services on the go. The shift from e-commerce to m-commerce is a thrilling experience to customer.

What is e-commerce and m-commerce?

e-commerce

Electronic Commerce or commonly known as e-commerce is the term used to define the trading of products or offering services using a computer/laptop over internet. The word was first mentioned in a book named as “What the Dormouse Said” in year 1972.

m-commerce

Mobile commerce or commonly known as m-commerce is the term used to define the transactions carried over mobile devices. The transactions could vary from services offering to buying and selling stuff. The term came into existence in year 1997 and since then it had led to so many innovations in mobile technology, just to ease out the transaction processing.

How and why m-commerce evolved?

The why of m-commerce is as simple as “because of the need”. Phones were the devices, which can be packed and taken to different places unlike their fixed counterparts making them handy and simple. And if look at the stats now, we see how globally we have accepted the idea of mobile phone and it is considered to be the essential part of our lives. And as innovation and new technologies have attained new heights, mobile phones are dirt cheaper and are accessible to all class of people, resulting in rise of mobile phone owners. And another most important factor is newer technologies being offered at reduced price making it easier for customer to adapt m-commerce. So, if something is part of our lives, why not to extend its usage?

M-commerce offers many advantages over e-commerce such as universality, personalization, mould-ability, instant connectivity, localization making it better choice for customers to adopt it.

The how of m-commerce is basically the history of its evolution. M-commerce presence was felt in year 1997 in Finland when the mobile phone enabled vending machines of Coca-Cola were installed. The mode of operation was you just sms the payment to the machine and it will accept it, allowing you to pick a drink from the vending machine. Even the first mobile banking transaction [1997] and first ringtone downloaded to mobile was successfully attempted in Finland.

Current State of m-commerce

So, now it’s almost two decades that m-commerce had existed. Where are we now?

Mobile users

This one doesn’t come as a shock as we have outcast in the number of global mobile users and is significantly higher than its fixed counterpart desktops.

Image Courtesy : ComSCORE

Traffic

In a recent study done by emarketer for Q3 2014 , that traffic via smartphones and tablets have increased and is accounted for 43 % of all visits to e-commerce sites.

Image Courtesy : emarketer

Mobile Apps

Most of the e-commerce sites are moving and providing mobile apps for customers to easy browsing and user friendly browser experience. The study conducted by visionmobile clearly shows that and it would continue further

Image Courtesy : VisionMobile

Mobile Apps Development

The simple logic of demand and supply, e-commerce sites are struggling to launch or maintain the apps provided, so there is high demand of its developers and if we see the study conducted by visionmobile

Image Courtesy : VisionMobile

Time Spent with Mobile Apps

Music is still the favorite category in all mobile apps where consumers spent their time the most. Social networking contrary to the popular belief is still at number three position in terms of time spent by the individual.

Image Courtesy : Localytics

To Wrap Up for now

m-Commerce which had evolved , with its shares of anticipation and apprehensions is now in a stage of dominance is e-commerce market. And for sure we would see better performance and more involvement from users in near future.