Mobile Commerce is a term to describe any commercial activity on a mobile device, such as a mobile phone (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) or a tablet (iPad, Galaxy Tab, Surface). This includes all steps of the customer journey; reach, attract, choose, convert and retain. Hence mobile commerce is probably best described as shopping that takes advantage of unique properties of mobile devices. It is also called as m-commerce.
In 2012, PayPal updated their mobile estimates three times, from $5 to $8 to $10 billion, finishing with a yearly increase of 150%. Similar increases have been confirmed by Amazon and eBay with now about 20% of sales coming from the mobile channel.
In 2013, mobile devices were integrated deeply into our lives. People are now always accompanied by their smart phones or tabs, which makes the line between the real world and the online world very thin. That explains the explosive growth of augmented reality and rich media and interactive content provided in out-of-home media.
It also means that the first three steps of the mobile customer journey are interchangeable online and offline. Using offline anchors, such as QR Codes, any offline marketing visual becomes the store itself, incorporating a big part of the total customer journey. That’s why it’s often heard that m-Commerce doesn’t actually exist!
This chapter represents the comparison between e-Commerce and m-commerce as m-commerce is considered as the extension of e-Commerce and also discusses the present and futuristic condition and position of m-Commerce with reference to its usage, sustainability and development.
The use of mobile devices can be summarized as: a convenient way to quickly act online in the offline world. These three ingredients (convenience, speed, location) are essential to understand the differences between traditional online and the quickly growing mobile behavior.
Mobile users perceive their devices as a means to quickly assist them in their offline activities, such as rapid and short communication, price checking or location-related services. When comparing mobile commerce to e-commerce, these differences become more evident. When following an e-Commerce customer journey, all activities such as price and product comparison, user reviews and purchasing are performed using the computer. Complex operations are easy and there is enough time. For m-Commerce physical sources and time are much more important.
Differences between E commerce and M Commerce are shown in Table 1.