Mobile Commerce Gains Traction

The new platform matches the definition of "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket,”

Mobile Commerce has become the new face of e commerce in recent times. The predecessor of this trend was the computer or big screen oriented e commerce. With the emergence of new and powerful Smartphones, it has become easier to look for new possibilities in the e commerce domain. It is in this onset that m commerce has engrossed the sector.

One of most potential reason of advent of this trend is the drastic increase of internet access via mobile. Mobile service providers now not only provide the facility to make a voice call via the service, but also provide extensive internet services, letting the customers access the online world via powerful handsets. The changing technology is also a reason for the emerging mobile e commerce platforms. Cells phones have now alternated to Smartphones with much higher specifications. Apart from strong browsing capabilities, these can run powerful applications that serve as gateways to massive internet commerce. Mobile devices have penetrated at an increasingly fast pace and are emerging as the biggest platform for sales for online retailers in India and also all over the world.

The facets that shape up the current market of m commerce have diverse origins. These aspects have their origins in different areas such as economic development, technology, banking and even social paradigms.

Below, we have discussed some aspects that have developed this revolutionary trend of mobile commerce to its present state:

Rising numbers of Mobile Internet Users:

The number of mobile internet users in India which was estimated at 173 million in December 2014, is expected to reach 213 million by June 2015. In rural India, this user base is expected to grow at 33% to reach 53 million by that time, says the report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International. Rural India has also been witnessing this trend largely due to introduction of inexpensive internet enabled mobile handsets. Also, the proportion of mobile internet users to active internet users has increased and is expected to follow a growth trajectory in the future. By June 2015, it is expected to reach 85% for urban and remain at 65% for rural India. The figures for internet users are quite impressive as the total internet user base stood at 278 million at the end of October 2014 quarter and is estimated to grow to 354 million by June 2015. The above numbers signify the emergence of mobile as a key transactional channel rather than a traffic driver only.  

Mobile Responsive Web Technology

Formerly, static websites were dominant on the internet. They were developed with the basic technology platforms such HTML. Those websites were static in nature, and even the term had no essence as the idea of responsive websites was not even incepted. However, with the modernization of technology, new methods and techniques came into mainstream development. As of now, technology such as PHP, JavaScript are being increasingly used to develop websites to be more powerful. The new generation ‘responsive’ websites had a great impact to make them adaptable to mobiles and small screen devices. These mobile friendly websites are with the special feature of liquidity. They can adjust to the screen of the device. Websites, which are static, when opened in a desktop or laptop screen have complete visibility of their features. However, when the same website is accessed via a small screen device such as a mobile or I-pad, some part of the website is ‘cropped off’ the screen. They lose user usability as many features just become inaccessible via the cell phone browser. The difference in responsive websites is, they retain their original and the set of full scale features even in these devices. Hence, e commerce websites are now developed to be mobile friendly so that they can be accessed via these devices with full functionality.

Mobile Payments

The advent of Mobile payment has been a backbone of mobile commerce. Although, the electronic systems of cash transfer have contributed significantly to e commerce, m payment has substantial contribution to m commerce. Apart from using direct systems of cash transfer such as credit and debit cards, money transfer is now made possible via mobile handsets. With this service customers can use their mobile phone to make payments for goods and services in online platforms. These are secure methods of payments that are aided with extensive encryption. These services are now provided by major internet giants such as Google Wallet, Apple Pay and PayPal. This has been adopted by different countries in various ways.

NFC, Near Field Communication is one of the effective technique that helped transactions via mobile. However, according to recent news, this has not been able to compete with the alternatives such as Apple’s payment services. Furthermore, this technology is difficult to integrate with handsets as well as, so it is not welcomed to the fullest by many retailers.

The Advent of Mobile Applications

Mobile applications are the next trendsetters to this market. These apps are powerful ways to provide better user friendly services to customers. In recent times, these apps are expected to become more personalized, providing better features. Apps are connected to the internet and they serve as a gateway to retail outlets. Through them it is possible to get complete access to websites and the retailer.

SaaS Platforms

Software as a Service platform is at the backend of every mobile commerce system. This technology lets services such as accounting, database management, CRM and other requirements of m commerce available to clients. This technology enables software and applications in the cloud domain to be accessed by any device such as mobile and I-Pads. Massive applications are hosted in the cloud domain and they can be accessed through the applications or through the interface on the mobile device. The major operations such as CRM, the uploading of product catalog are all achieved within SaaS Platforms. This has enabled mobile commerce platforms to use or access massive database and applications in the cloud sphere.

According to sources, United States is ahead of others to reach out for the mobile commerce market place. This market is also expected to grow rapidly in North America and other countries. According to estimation, within next four years, 32 per cent of all payments would be done via this channel.

This new platform is gaining popularity because of easy accessibility of features. It just matches with its easy definition of "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket.”

Keeping all the factors in mind, mobile commerce is likely to be a game changer and experts opine that m-commerce would contribute up to 70 per cent of their total revenues. The e-commerce companies will tailor their sites for mobile devices and improve customer experiences accordingly. Shopping online through Smartphones has gained traction and industry experts believe that m-commerce is likely to contribute up to 70 per cent of total revenues of online retailers.

Inputs by Rajiv Kumar, CEO & Founder of StoreHippo.com in BW Businessworld - a fortnightly launched more than three decades ago - among India’s largest and most respected business magazines.