Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce)
The use of wireless handheld devices such as cell phones and laptops used to conduct commercial transactions online is growing like weeds in Texas! This new phenomenon is now known as Mobile Commerce – or M-Commerce for short. M-Commerce transactions continues to grow and includes the purchase and sale of a wide range of goods and services beyond just purchasing online products, to include online banking, bill payment, information delivery and more.
More important than ever, M-Commerce is a rapidly growing sector – and it’s so exciting!
M-Commerce is now bigger than ‘traditional’ eCommerce
Just late last year, Shopify study revealed that over 50% of all visits to eCommerce stores are now coming from mobile devices. This statistic is reflected in Google’s recent update – commonly referred to now as ‘Mobilegeddon’) in which mobile friendly sites are being rewarded with higher rankings in the mobile search results.
Earning the obvious title of ‘the next generation eCommerce’, M-Commerce is now ‘officially’ bigger than eCommerce traffic coming from computers and desktop devices.
Based solely on information from around 100,000 Shopify stores, the stats are not surprising when you learn of the huge venture capital investments that have been put into m-commerce in recent years.
Mobile Commerce Definition
In order to exploit the M-Commerce market potential, handset manufacturers such as Apple, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Qualcomm are working with carriers such as AT&T Wireless and Sprint to develop WAP-enabled smart phones, the industry’s answer to the Swiss Army Knife, and ways to reach them. Using Bluetooth technology, smart phones offer fax, e-mail, and phone capabilities all in one, paving the way for m-commerce to be accepted by an increasingly mobile workforce.
As content delivery over wireless devices becomes faster, more secure, and scalable, there is wide speculation that M-Commerce will surpass wireline eCommerce as the method of choice for digital commerce transactions.
Massive Investment
According to a report issued by Digi-Capital, the money invested into mobile commerce sites in Q3 2013 to Q3 2014 was $4.2 billion. A staggering figure compared with the $1.2 billion invested the previous year, and the $829 million invested in the previous two years combined.
The vast majority of the money going into a few larger platforms such as Uber and Pinterest, the investment money also went into fueling a large amount of new m-commerce start-ups, changing the online commerce environment irreversibly.
Other Growth Factors
It’s not just the investment that is causing m-commerce to grow year on year. Other factors such as recent developments in mobile handset technology and high demand from an ever-mobile consumer base for mobile applications from product services, to B2B and online shopping are fueling the explosive growth.
But there’s still a long way to go.
North Texas Web Design
North Texas Web Design specializes in mobile responsive websites – to include mobile responsive eCommerce (or M-Commerce) applications. If you have an older eCommerce store and want to stay competitive, call us 972-474-7035 so we can discuss options to upgrade your current website to a M-Commerce website.