Why it’s Time for Retailers to opt for mCommerce?

The retail market, as we knew it a couple of years back, has changed considerably! In the last decade we have seen a drastic transformation in the way consumers interact with the marketing mix. From the age of ecommerce today we have entered the era of mcommerce or Mobile Commerce. Now we’re seeing mobile devices as one of the most potential channels of marketing. But this gradual shift to the mobile medium did not develop in a single day. Marketing experts opine that this gradual change from ecommerce to mcommerce didn’t evolve from within the retail industry. In contrary it is the choice of the common people - the consumers, so to say, who embraced the evolving mobile technologies and increasingly looked to explore uncharted frontiers in this domain, which lead to the proliferation of mcommerce. Examples are aplenty, the smartphones being the most remarkable case in point.

There was a time when you would dial your neighborhood shop and order groceries and consider it trendy! The home delivery guy would turn up at your front door with the orders, all neatly packed! Then came the era of ecommerce when you would order over the internet and pay through your credit card and get the items delivered to you in a few days time. There’s scope of selection as well for online purchases and you could read through pages of user reviews to finalize your purchase decision! But that was not all, in came the smartphones and with it mobile commerce changed the whole scenario.



According to a research conducted by ATG, Inc. "20% of all consumers and 32% of 18-34 year olds are researching purchases via mobile at least monthly". Forrester Research’s report states that the US online retail business would see a likely growth of 10 percent per annum to reach $249 billion by 2014, a figure which was just $173 billion in 2010! This further validates how mcommerce is going to make an impact in the coming years.



However, this probable shift from ecommerce to mcommerce platform is still in a nascent stage. Even big retailers today are using their existing ecommerce platforms like websites to cater to their mobile visitors instead of a specially designed platform for m-commerce. iPhone and other smartphones, enabled with hi-end features like WAP, make it easy for the visitors to access websites through their mobile devices. Hence, with increased smartphone usage, today consumers are making purchase from retailers directly through their mobile phones.

Besides, there are added advantages for retailers as well as consumers to opt for mcommerce. Security is a crucial factor in this case.



Fraudulent websites offering attractive discounts on online purchases are not uncommon. Again fake customer profiles and transaction scams do occur in the ecommerce domain. With such instances not being a rarity, it is time for retailers to choose m-commerce. Digital revolution has made a vast impact on the consumers’ mind. With m-commerce offering such outstanding facilities like- portability, immediacy, localization, instant connectivity, and simple authentication, it is time for retail businesses to adopt mobile applications as fast as they can.