We have seen the rise of eCommerce and the way it has changed the market. The internet has fuelled this explosion, making eCommerce a part of our day-to-day lives. Tailing eCommerce came in the concept of mobile commerce or mCommerce, which would be another revolution in the field of commerce.
mCommerce has been gaining popularity and becoming one of the most potent consumer trends lately. Studies have shown that roughly 6 billion people use smartphones worldwide to access the internet. Considering this large number of smartphone users, the reason behind why mCommerce is becoming a new trend in the market is pretty evident.
In this blog, you will get to know in detail about mCommerce, its advantages & disadvantages, and the importance of mCommerce in your business.
What is mCommerce?
Mobile commerce or mCommerce refers to business or purchases conducted over handheld devices such as smartphones or tablets. It involves conducting online commercial transactions, the purchase and sale of products, online banking, and paying bills. mCommerce is an increasingly evolving subset of eCommerce (Electronic Commerce). With mobile commerce, users can transact anywhere, provided they have a smartphone or a tablet with a wireless internet provider available in that area.
The emergence of mCommerce has introduced many new industries and services such as mobile banking, mobile ticketing, boarding passes, sophisticated location-based services, and mobile marketing. The rapid growth of mCommerce can be attributed to several factors, including increased wireless handheld devices, a proliferation of mCommerce applications, and the broad resolution of security issues.
Top Applications of mCommerce
Besides the straightforward application of buying and selling goods and services, mCommerce has so many other applications. Let us take a look at mCommerce applications with a deeper view.
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- Mobile banking: With the help of a mobile phone, mCommerce lets you perform functions regarding all your banking needs. For example, to pay an electricity bill or to send money to your friend, you just have to make a UPI payment while sitting in the comfort of your home. In India, payment gateway like Zaakpay facilitates this system in their applications.
- Mobile marketing: mCommerce also helps businesses advertise their products and services by targeting customers according to their location, service provider, the type of device they use, and various other criteria. A considerable part of the world’s population has a mobile phone today. Smartphones have taken over our day-to-day operations to a great extent. Hence, mCommerce can serve as a good marketing tool.
- Healthcare and Medicine: With the help of mobile commerce, you can shop for medical products, find a doctor, book an appointment, and view all your medical reports. It also lets you video call your doctors to discuss health issues online and get valid prescriptions. On the whole, mCommerce helps you keep your health in check regularly.
- Entertainment: The high impact of mCommerce has also been observed in the entertainment industry. Today, you can listen to live match updates, watch your favourite movies TV shows, or listen to your favourite songs on the go. With the increasing number of mobile users and people’s busy schedules, mobile apps have made lives much more comfortable and convenient.
Apart from the above industries, mobile commerce also plays a significant role in retail, hospitality, gaming, ticketing industries etc.
Advantages of mCommerce in Business
Given that mCommerce has a wide range of benefits, it helps businesses grow their customer base and, in turn, their revenue. For example, digital payment service providers like Zaakpay lets customers make a UPI payment without the inconvenience of swiping cards. Social media platforms, such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., enable users to conveniently make purchases from other retailers directly from these social media sites.
The range of devices supporting mCommerce is growing, thus helping businesses extend their reach to customers. Now, let’s take a look at the advantages that mCommerce applications bring to companies.
- Seamless user experience: Mobile applications load 1.5 times faster than websites. Consumers can be impatient and demand a faster and more seamless experience. Mobile apps allow customers to browse and purchase products faster, thus allowing a seamless user experience. Hence, employing mCommerce into your business results in better conversion rates & revenue.
- Timely updates about the products: Traditionally, a customer walks into a store, selects a product, and purchases it. But we never know why the customer chooses a specific product. With a mobile app, the customer can browse their preferred product and then is taken to an India payment gateway to buy the product. The customer’s behaviour right from when they open the application until they quit is tracked by mobile analytics. Thus, mCommerce lets businesses know more about their customers. They can pay more serious attention to customer attributes like their intent, habits, and preferences. Hence, you can send a push notification whenever a new or updated version of an older product is released.
- New marketing channel: As seen above, mobile commerce allows your business to reach its target audience. This way, you can reduce marketing campaign costs. Moreover, if your app is integrated with social media networks, users will spread the word about your brand if they like your product. Other expenses, like transaction costs, carrying costs and order processing costs, are also reduced.
- Easy store access: If you own a brick-and-mortar store, you can enhance the in-store experience with the help of mCommerce. It helps shoppers navigate inside your store and find what they need quickly without searching for it. It would also help staff stay updated about the stock and eliminate manual data entry.
In conclusion, mCommerce is the next step in the technological evolution that brands must take if they want to survive in today’s internet-based world. It has become one of the most potent consumer trends of this decade. mCommerce is helping all businesses, from an eCommerce company to a payment gateway company. It is changing the way we live and how we shop and consume content.
