MOBILE COMMERCE ! what is m commerce !HISTORY OF MOBILE COMMERCE IN INDIA

MOBILE COMMERCE ! What Is M-Commerce

The word mobile commerce first emerged at the launch of the global mobile commerce forum in the year 1997 defined by Kevin Duffey . According to Kevin Duffey “the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology is called m-commerce”

“M-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, using handheld wireless devices such as mobile telephones or Personal digital assistants (PDAs)”.

m commerce full form-

• m commerce full form – mobile commerce

m commerce examples ! mobile commerce examples

Mobile commerce consists of products and services such as

• 1. Mobile Money Transfer,
• 2. Mobile ATM,
• 3. Mobile ticketing,
• 4. Mobile vouchers, coupons and loyalty cards,
• 5. Content purchase and delivery,
• 6. Location-based services,
• 7. Information services,
• 8. Mobile Banking,
• 9. Auctions,
• 10. Mobile browsing,
• 11. Mobile purchase,
• 12. In-application mobile phone payments,
• 13. Mobile marketing and
• 14. Advertising. 

According to the Tech in Asia report on m-commerce Asian continent represents half of the market, and  t is expected to reach US$700 billion in 2017 .

Mobile devices have been the fastest adopted consumer products .

M-commerce adoption differs across the globe depending on the countries, technological progress and preference of their citizens. Studies have proven the moderating effect of culture in m-commerce adoption .

m-commerce can be broadly divided into three categories namely

• 1. Transactions Management (for e.g.: Payments, Shopping)
• 2. Digital Content delivery (for e.g.: E-Mail, Information browsing,)
• 3. Telemetry Services (for e.g. Status monitoring, Interactive Marketing).

Lee and Lee (2006) in their attempt to study m-commerce applications and their perceived importance among m-commerce users, grouped m-commerce applications in five important categories

1. Information and Data Accessing, “… which includes browsing of news, directory services, maps, traffic and weather report”.
2. Communication and Interaction, “… includes short messaging, e-mailing, chat room and video conferencing applications”.
3. Entertainment, such as music, gaming, video and picture downloads.
4. Transactions functions, such as banking, shopping, auction, mobile wallet, booking, and reservations, etc.
5. Telemetry, which is to use the mobile device to communicate with other devices, similar to the functions of a “handheld”  device.

five specific m-commerce features which are more advantageous compared to e-commerce they are –

1. ‘Always on’ which means users can carry out their transactions comfortably through the internet enabled mobile device and can stay connected 24/7. 
2. A ‘Location-centric’ which means Global Positioning System (GPS) software, a built-in mobile application which benefits m-commerce  providers to locate its customers and send location specific information and users can get location-based customized offers directly to their mobile phone. 
3. ‘Convenience’ which means consumers need not have to plan their time specifically for shopping and locate a place to access e-commerce, rather they can access anywhere any time conveniently through m-commerce. 
4. ‘Customization’ which means with the use of this technology the m-commerce providers can easily share customized information to their target customers by taking their previous purchase history into consideration and identifying their buying habits. These help the customer to shortlist the alternatives quickly. 
5. ‘Identifiability’ which means the mobile phone is used by the individual, so it becomes easy for m-commerce providers to identify personally and exclusively target its customer.

The mobile shopping software’s easily installable on mobile devices, also known as mobile apps, has rapidly grown and increased the popularity of advanced mobile devices . Simple apps, with high  sability, searchability, browseability, the the navigable interface has given digital shoppers a delightful experience and satisfaction . Ubiquitous nature of mobile is the key factor for promoting e-business. It is important to know from the consumer’s point of view apart from information seeking, are consumers using a smartphone application for shopping?

MOBILE COMMERCE (M-COMMERCE) IN INDIA

Mobile-commerce in India is still at a nascent stage, but some research firm’s reports have shown a tremendous increase in adoption of m-commerce among Indian consumer . According to a Forbes report (2015), India is witnessing a shift from e-commerce to m-commerce . According to the Deloitte TMT  India Predictions (2016), the new Indian government plans on building smart cities would bring investments around $150 billion dollars and M-commerce in India has an enormous potential which is justified by the report of Frost and Sullivan report (2014) which quotes that, by the end 2018 Indian m-commerce market is expected to reach a record revenue of $1.26 billion US Dollars with 72.5 million users .

India will have an m-commerce market of $19 billion USD by the year 2019 ). 

According to Boston Consulting Group report (2015) that the Internet will contribute 5 % GDP to India by the year 2018.There were around 260 million total internet users in India in the year 2015, and it is predicted to grow up to 650 million by the year 2020 (BCG and RAI report, 2016). More than 50% of the internet in India is accessed from a mobile device (e-marketer report, 2016). There is a mix of opinions on perceived value among Indian consumers towards the adoption of mobile Internet.

Mobile internet to contribute 70 to 80 % of the total online population, compared to 60% in the year 2013. Rural consumers have already started using the internet through a mobile bypassing PC. Thirty percentage (30%) of mobile internet user’s in urban India uses financial service weekly through their smartphone (Ericsson consumer lab report, 2015). Major telephone operators in India are rolling out 4G plans across the country which will boost m-commerce in coming years (Deloitte TMT India Predictions 2016 report). According to Research and Markets report (2015), shows that there is an increase in the online mode of travel booking via mobile phone compared to offline booking and the Indian travel sector will witness compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 14% during the year 2015- 2019. The significant contribution to the growth in travel sector would come from mobile travel purchases.