The Future of Mobile Commerce

Mobile is changing the way we sell and buy and it is becoming increasingly central to consumers' lives. They expect to access information, services and communicate 24/7. With this in mind, what else do more than 50 million people have with them all the time that could be useful for this? The answer is the mobile phone. Its ubiquity, highly personalised and instantaneous has led to an increasing popularity among the consumers.

Next time you are out shopping, think about how you use your mobile phone. Most consumers use their mobile for a host of different things – compare shopping with friends, take pictures of product and also share new purchases on social networking pages.

The modern consumer is technology savvy and fully embraces new and relevant innovations and products that enter the market. The problem is that the consumer tech market is saturated with ideas, gadgets, Apps and endless product upgrades, meaning that it can be difficult for retailers and consumers to see the wood from the trees when it comes to which are useful, practical and will actually enhance their shopping experience.

Today’s multi-channel market (online, mobile, in-store, voice etc) presents massive opportunities and providing integrated cross-channel strategies that add real value to customers. Solutions that are easy to use create a coherent experience and connect on a one-to-one basis more than ever before. And the mobile needs to be central to this strategy, closing the 360 marketing circle, engaging with the customer and capturing the need there and then. Every channel has a specific role and the brands that are leading the way in multi-channel customer engagement are the ones that have figured out how to best maximise these touch-points in different ways.

M-Commerce

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is fast becoming a hot topic of interest for retailers due to the recent explosion of mobile apps into the market and the extending capability of handsets. M-commerce is the equivalent to e-commerce but conducted through mobile devices including smart phones, non-smart phones, tablets and notebooks. It covers everything where products/services can be bought via a mobile.

M-commerce is already transforming the mobile into a personal trusted device from which customers can reliably and securely conduct transactions such as banking, payment and ticketing – irrespective of time and place. This will transform everyday life, giving users total freedom. With the unique advantages of mobility, availability and personalisation, mobile commerce will add a powerful new dimension to customer service and be a source of substantial new revenue and place the mobile firmly at the centre of consumers' lives.

So it is no wonder that mobile commerce is fast becoming the channel of choice as it adds another dimension to shopping on a whim. Online shopping requires less commitment than venturing onto the high street, but mobile takes that a step further and enables customers to act on an impulse to buy as soon as they feel it, wherever and whenever, and without the need for a computer or even mobile internet access. It can all be done through a simple text message.

The outlook for 2012

Today, at the end of 2011, over half of all mobile phones in use by customers in the US are smartphones. The UK is hot on its heels. As smartphones continue their huge consumer adoption rate and consumers use the mobile web with increasing frequency, mobile commerce will continue its impressive growth in 2012. Consumers expect the mobile web experience to be as good as the traditional web, but with additional features that maximise the capabilities of their phones such as location-aware services.

Android will likely jump to 50 percent market share in 2012. Apple will continue to grow and lead the market with innovation. SMS will continue to be the driving force in non-voice communication and will also facilitate m-commerce.

The tablet will blur the lines between commerce and mobile. Digitally savvy consumers are already using tablets to make purchases, and this trend will accelerate as consumer adoption of tablets continues to rise. The tablet user is typically from a high-tech, affluent demographic, and for brand-conscious companies looking to target these consumers, tablets provide an engaging channel to repackage their web content to create a unique brand experience for the consumer. Tablets will be used by consumers as a tool to more deeply engage with the brand and inform purchasing decisions, and will ultimately be used by more brands and consumers to enhance the overall shopping experience.

In summary, it is difficult to know whether any single m-commerce solution will become a “killer” in the marketplace, however, the key advantage of m-commerce may be its ability to support a wide variety of attractive and innovative solutions from SMS to apps. This will be the key characteristic of m-commerce - highly personalised, context-aware, location-sensitive, time-critical solutions, all conducted in a very secure environment.

Source: By Ellis-Brown on 19th December 2011.

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