Mobile commerce or mobile e-commerce is the sale or purchase activities made using mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. E-commerce using mobile devices is possible basically in two ways, by using mobile websites or mobile apps. Responsive websites look the same in various shaped and sized mobile devices in contrast to non-responsive websites. Responsive websites make mobile browsing smoother. Mobile apps offer a better e-commerce experience to the users due to higher compatibility with the devices. The performance and security of native mobile apps are regarded as of the highest level. Most of the mobile users are inclining towards mobile app purchases.
History
The mobile commerce was introduced first on 10th November 1997 by Kevin Duffey. It was the launch ceremony of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum (GMCF) in London. The trademark for m-Commerce was filed by the group in 2008. About a hundred organizations became a member of the forum within a year. 1st mobile commerce sale was made in 1998, of downloading a ringtone in Finland. The breakthrough came in 1999, the service offered as i-Mode, by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. It was a revenue-sharing e-commerce model. NTT DoCoMo was charging 9% for each sale and the rest passing to the product owner. By the year 2000, mobile commerce started gaining the popularity pace with various other offerings started. Finally, with the introduction of the Apple App Store in 2007, the way of doing business got revolutionized.
Vision
The vision behind the thought of mobile e-commerce was to put retail shops in everyone’s pocket. This thought was put forward in the way back 1997 when GMCF came into existence. This could bring a higher user experience which could lead to more commerce. This was based on an ease-of-doing-business.
Benefits of Mobile E-commerce
- Better User Experience
The comfort of purchase online can’t be easier than through the mobile e-commerce. The number of mobile device users has increased and still increasing. The goal of the visionaries has been fulfilled. Retail shops have been come to the pocket of buyers, in their mobile devices in form of e-commerce app or responsive e-commerce websites. Also, the time spent on a mobile device by users has increased and still showing an upward trend. With the customer’s point of view, they can make a purchase round the clock and without any geographical boundary. Customers can reach the e-commerce sellers at any point in time. These lead to a healthy experience for the customers.
- Easy User Engagement
As much a user gets involved, the interests increase. Mobile e-commerce has higher conversion rates in comparison to desktop e-commerce. Push notification is the major source to engage users more. Push notifications are the small messages sent to mobile app users. App users can’t reply to it, can only read it. By sending updates related to the online store or sending various kinds of offers through push notifications, users can be engaged more. After viewing the push notification, they can come to the app store and make purchases. Live chat with users, email to users are some of the ways app users can be engaged.
- Location-Based Services
The best part of mobile devices is, it can read the device location. With a known location, the app users can be offered relevant products for sale. This offers mobile app users a good experience of shopping online. What they were thinking to purchase, that appeared in front of them! For example, if a user is at a hill station in the winter season, offers can be made for the winter season clothes. Users can happily have a look at the store and chances of purchase items become higher. Similarly, if a user is near to or even in a competitors shop, send them feasible good discount offers to bring back to your app store and make purchases.
- Upselling & Cross-selling
Upselling & cross-selling is a well-known trend in e-commerce marketing nowadays. Let us understand it with an example. If a user has purchased a formal pant-shirt from a store then the seller can present an offer for a tie, belt, shoes, or likewise. The chances of purchasing such items become higher depending upon the presentation. Similarly, an offer can be made if a referral user purchases then the discount will be higher on the items. Caution should be made with the discounts offered, it is not always discounts which make sales. Sometimes, good features presented to the user make the items get purchased.
Scope of Mobile E-commerce
Mobile app users have been multiplied in recent years. 10% of retail purchases made across the globe is through e-commerce. This data leads to the conclusion that still now 90% of offline purchases have to be online in the future. The scope is vast. The overall worth of mobile e-commerce is the US $800 Billion. This is a huge share and no seller would like to ignore it. The share is still on a growing path.
Conclusion
Mobile commerce has become a must be practiced by a seller across the globe. It has huge potential to make an e-commerce business grown. Just plunge into it without putting a second thought. Builderfly offers AI-powered mobile e-commerce apps for native iOS & Android platforms. By using the Builderfly dashboard launch the apps on respective app stores, iOS on Apple App Store, and Android on Google Play Store.
