Mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, involves the use of wireless and mobile handheld devices like smartphones and tablets for the online conduction of transactions. These online transactions include online banking, paying bills, and purchasing and selling products.
The use of m-commerce is growing with time. Mobile commerce sales are expected to reach $3.56 trillion in 2022. In comparison, the same sales were $2.91 trillion registered in 2021.
Mobile commerce is the purchases or business done over mobile devices like tablets and cellphones. With m-commerce, you can carry your business along with you anywhere; you just need a stable internet connection in the area for streamlined operations. With the resolution of security issues, the popularity of m-commerce has enhanced rapidly. Big names like Google and Apple have introduced their own commerce services.
Mobile commerce is the sub-category of e-commerce; e-commerce involves conducting business over the internet either by individuals or firms. You can manage different services and products via m-commerce, including buying tickets, banking, investing, and purchasing digital music and books.
There are different factors playing roles in the rapid growth of m-commerce, including the proliferation of mobile commerce apps, enhanced wireless handheld device computing power, and the brand resolution of security issues.
Mobile Commerce and Electronic Commerce
Talking about electronic commerce or e-commerce includes all the commercial transactions that take place online or digitally, while mobile commerce or m-commerce is strictly a mobile device dealing with digital transactions taking place online.
M-commerce is the subcategory of e-commerce; e-commerce refers to transactions taking place on desktop computers. Thus, when you browse a clothing website on a desktop and make a purchase from the site, it’s an e-commerce transaction.
While if you access the same clothing brand or any retailer through an application or a mobile site, it’s an m-commerce transaction. The main purpose of m-commerce is to enable users to access online shopping platforms conveniently, browse and make a purchase as seamlessly as possible using a mobile device.
What Are the Benefits of Mobile Commerce?
M-commerce benefits both consumers and brands. Here are some of the key benefits to consider:
1. For Consumers
- Find New Brands to Buy from Instantly
Mobile commerce offers a timely and quick avenue for consumers to research desired products and bookmark the brands mentally to buy from later.
- Immediacy
If you see it, there’s a possibility that you will buy it. You can complete flash sales, last-minute purchases, and time-sensitive transactions such as the emergency buy in a matter of seconds.
- Convenience
It is a big benefit you can leverage from mobile commerce. M-commerce offers the convenience to make purchases from anywhere, and you don’t have to be tied to traditional business hours or stuck at a desktop. It speaks for itself in terms of convenience.
2. For Brands
- Data
You can learn a lot about customer behavior through mobile commerce. For instance, at what time your mobile shoppers are the most active? On which pages and items do they spend the most time on? And if they visit you on social after they bounce?
- Mobile Makes It Convenient for Shoppers to Share Purchases
From customer photo tags via Instagram to social media mentions, smartphones enable customers to shout out their favorite brands with less effort.
- Fewer Friction and Opportunities for Customers to Bounce
M-commerce capitalized and encouraged the consumer desire to buy ASAP. It results in a more effective funnel and a speedier purchasing journey.
What Are the Types of Mobile Commerce?
Buying and selling from mobile devices are getting extremely popular now. Mobile commerce is an additional channel for not only small businesses but also for larger enterprises that helps them to scale.
Although it covers a huge variety of processes, we can differentiate m-commerce into three main types;
Mobile Shopping, Mobile Payment, and Mobile Banking.
1. Mobile Shopping
Mobile shopping enables customers to buy anything they need using a mobile device. Customers don’t need to visit physical stores to buy groceries, clothes, shoes, or any accessories. A person just has a find a suitable application or site online and can have products delivered. It is a convenient option for busy people and also saves a lot of time.
2. Mobile Payment
Mobile payment defines the money payment made using a mobile device. Most banks have applications that enable their clients to transfer money from their accounts instantly. At stores, customers just need a mobile phone to make a payment for their purchases. Retailers accept the payments for customers by scanning a barcode on a smartphone. It brings numerous benefits, including the payment process being fast, it is more secure than a credit card, and the person doesn’t need to carry cash.
3. Mobile Banking
It is the digital world, and banks are striving to simplify the financial transactions processes so that clients can do it through special applications. Now people can buy products, pay for rent, and transfer money online.
The service allows customers to make transactions online from their handheld mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. With these devices, clients can do banking from any place in the world with an internet connection. Mobile banking is convenient and prevents people from long queues, fraud, and technical problems.
You’ve probably used any of these types of m-commerce and can say that they are helpful in our everyday lives.
Examples of M-Commerce
There are three main categories of mobile commerce; mobile payments, mobile banking, and mobile shopping. The highest growth areas of this industry are as follows:
- Mobile ticketing
- In-application purchasing (such as purchasing clothing items through a retail application)
- Digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay.
- Virtual marketplace applications like Amazon.
- Mobile Banking
There is a significant crossover with FinTech. The reason is that m-commerce doesn’t only refer to the buying of products. Along with that, it also encapsulates the behavior of smartphones that lead to making a mobile purchase and the technology enabling it.
Critical M-Commerce Areas
The key mobile commerce areas include the following:
1. Convenient Purchases
Most of the purchases taking place on mobile are not retail-related, and the field is not just restricted to ‘shopping.’ These purchases also include grocery deliveries, ride-sharing, food ordering, and booking taxis.
Many international and local players are currently working in the Pakistani market. Ride-hailing has grown at an explicit speed in the last few years. Careem and Uber are the two primary players in the market, but now many local companies are also joining this ride.
Bykea, InDriver, and Airlift are some of the other renowned names. When Airlift shifted from just rides model to grocery delivery, many other franchises started joining it as well.
2. Digital Content (Renting and Purchasing)
Subscription applications are one of the most popular applications on mobile, commonly with video and music (consider Spotify and Netflix). Users of the apps pay a subscription fee, and they can access an entire library of content from their mobile application.
Such brands are difficult to find in the local market, but you can’t deny the userbase of these brands in our country.
3. Browsing and Buying
As e-commerce works on a desktop, m-commerce involves the user browsing different mobile apps, clicking around mobile websites, and making purchases. It occurs typically through a dedicated application but can also take place as a ‘social commerce’ purchase with different social media platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, offering in-app purchasing options.
Browsing and buying are the main examples of m-commerce.
One of the biggest e-commerce brands in Pakistan ‘Daraz’ provides mobile commerce and has acquired the Alibaba group.
4. Mobile Application Payments and Wallet Payments
There are numerous ways by which you can actually make an m-commerce purchase using fintech. Digital wallets are growing in popularity these days.
Instead of entering credit card details to every app separately, you can load (as a popup/overlay) the digital wallet and can make a purchase with a single click or by simply using a thumbprint.
Even in the local market, there are a number of payment options available such as Easypaisa and JazzCash. However, such payments are not as common as they are internationally, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
How Can Xavor Help?
M-commerce is a growing field. Everyone owns a smartphone, so everyone is a potential customer. This field holds a lot of potentials. Xavor provides its services to existing companies as well as the new players in the market who wish to launch their own m-commerce products.
Using analytics and data, we can even customize a solution for potential companies to assist them in growing in the field. We can create outstanding mobile applications and design an appropriate system for their businesses. Our mobile application development services include:
- App Development (Android & iOS)
- Automated QA & Testing Services
- Enterprise iOS app store management
- UI/UX Design Services
- Integration of any 3rd party payment gateway
- Uploading and managing applications on App Store
- Maintenance & Support