Mobile Commerce: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Future of Retail

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
What e-commerce services are provided by m-commerce?............................................................4
Discusses the role of m-commerce in retailing?..............................................................................5
Why is m-commerce such a fragmented market?............................................................................6
Why do retailers spend much of their I.T budget on m-commerce?...............................................7
Discuss the impact of m-commerce on competition among retailers..............................................8
What are the difficulties in managing mobile technology?.............................................................9
What is the future for m-commerce?.............................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Mobile commerce has started to gain development as the use of smartphones has started to rise.
Mobile commerce is related to electronic commerce as both of them work side by side. The
industries have started to adopt m-commerce as a way to expand their businesses.
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What e-commerce services are provided by m-commerce?
The term M-commerce means mobile commerce services which are used by the customer and
retailers for the purpose of buying and selling of products and services through wireless devices
such as mobiles and tablets (Agarwal, 2018). It is basically a form of e-commerce which obtains
the functions to access online shopping and make the shopping experience better without any use
of laptops or desktops. There are several services of e-commerce provided by the m-commerce
such as mobile banking, in-app purchasing, digital wallets such as Amazon pay, Apple pay and
Samsung pay and virtual marketing.
M-commerce services are more reliable and scalable than the e-commerce services in every
sense like if measure than in 2017 the sale of products and services by m-commerce are 34.5%
higher than e-commerce. Various industries are affected by m-commerce such as financial
services, telecommunications, services & retails and information services. The m-commerce
services are departmentalized in several areas such as wireless shopping, wireless banking and
wireless payments. Mobile shopping enables the facilities to customers to buy the products
online using a website or application (Agarwal, 2018). Technologies allow the customers to use
m-commerce services without any obstacle so that they could use the services anytime anywhere.
Digital wallets are also the biggest opportunity for online shoppers that enable making payments
without swiping card or paying cash. Mobile banking is also an m-commerce type of service that
allows a fervent transaction that customers do like. These banking transactions are mostly done
by a secure and dedicated app.
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Discusses the role of m-commerce in retailing?
M-commerce is the fragment of retailing that is done through mobiles, tablets and other portable
technologies such as smartwatches. The m-commerce is rapidly taking place in the retail market
and the estimation is ascertaining that by 2021 the m-commerce will endorse sales up to 170%
higher from 2017 (Yassierli, et.al., 2019). The customer is more likely to purchase online
through m-commerce than purchasing through e-commerce or through retail shop because m-
commerce is taking place at a rapid speed. The percent of buying the product on a retail market
is 66% and the estimation is calculated by the census or e-marketer that the effect of m-
commerce on retails will slightly go upwards up to 88% in 2021. This is the clear trend which
shows the effective use of mobile phones and tablets is done by the people.
The changes in technologies, customer shopping patterns and retailers investment in the mobile
channels are also contributing gradually in order to increase the awareness of m-commerce in the
public. The investor increases the channels of mobile through which people can get connected
with m-commerce and utilize the benefits of m-commerce such as social media apps and mobile-
friendly websites. M-commerce is the simplest and fastest way to get connected with the new
customer because customers are bit impatient because they want fastest services to shopping or
else they start searching they're the rival online shopping sites if the page does not access more
than 3 seconds (Yassierli, et.al., 2019). Therefore, the channels are necessary to expand in order
to use m-commerce significantly.
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Why is m-commerce such a fragmented market?
There is not a single industry present today that manipulates the market in the m-commerce
business. There are various organisations which use m-commerce according to their own
benefits. The consumers also do not have a proper idea of what the m-commerce benefits are as
there are little implications that are shown by the organisations. But as the internet usage in
smartphones is increasing, people are becoming more and more dependent on the use of m-
commerce to do their daily tasks like shopping or bill payments M-commerce is considered to be
a fragmented business as it has many factors that are involved in it. M-commerce does not cater
to a specific business or sector but rather is used in all of the sectors. Also, the businesses today
do not fully comprehend the usage of m-commerce into their processes. Shopping is being done
online by the customers and most of this is through their smartphones. Most of the fashion
industries need to focus on how to implement methods of m-commerce so that it can increase its
sales. M-commerce is also linked with the banking sector as people pay their bills through their
smartphones. The use of m-commerce in banks has not been that relevant as most of the high-
level banks do not want to implement this feature for security reasons.
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Why do retailers spend much of their I.T budget on m-commerce?
It can seem that retailers have started to put in more capital in their I.T budget for increasing e-
commerce. This is done because there has been an uprise in the population who are going more
toward using m-commerce in their daily lives. It is seen that the rise of m-commerce sales rose to
about 40% in the year of 2017. This shows that the retail industries have to depend on more m-
commerce for their sales to rise and for them to make profits. Supermarkets focus their IT budget
on m-commerce as most of the grocery shopping can be done now on smartphones. People
would select the items that they want to buy on their mobile devices and can either pick them up
at the supermarkets or have it delivered at home. The retail industries need to come up with new
applications for mobile devices and make sure that these applications are easy to use for the
customer. The budget which is set up by retail firms needs to implement more in the I.T sector as
this is the department which will handle the making and managing of the applications used for
m-commerce.
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Discuss the impact of m-commerce on competition among retailers.
The use of m-commerce seems to be increasing day by day by which is increasing the
competition among the retail industries. The sale of smartphones has increased in the recent year
which has developed m-commerce. Retailers can now reach customers more easily and have a
better understanding of them. Retail industries have started to develop various applications for
smartphones in which they can connect to the customer. The competition is who can get the most
number of customers to pick their m-commerce way. These industries need to new and
innovative designs and functions that will increase their customer base. Another way that m-
commerce has increased the competition level amongst the retailers is that the retailers want to
spread their awareness and can do this by providing services to remote locations. By m-
commerce, the customers who live in rural areas can purchase the products that they need and it
will be delivered to their doorstep. Amazon and Walmart are two retail industries who have been
competing in the m-commerce industry as both of them have applications for Android and IOS
users (CEOworld.biz).
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What are the difficulties in managing mobile technology?
One of the biggest challenges that can be seen with managing mobile technology is the issue of
trust form the customer end. If there is no proper trust between the organisation and customer
then there will be limited sales. The other challenge is faced by mobile technologies is security
regarding the customer's privacy. If the customer feels that their privacy is being affected in any
way then they will opt to leave the retailer. Finding a suitable model and structure that fits m-
commerce into the organizational plan is a tough process. There are limited models available that
can fully implement mobile technologies into the business. The balance in design the application
which is to be used in mobile devices needs to be managed in such a way that the customers are
satisfied and the organisation can fully understand what is needed by the customer. Mobile
technology should not only be about how the customers can benefit from but also how the
employees in the industry can work with it. Using a mobile can increase the productivity of the
employees because work will be done quickly. The last challenge that is faced by mobile
technology is that there are be issues regarding network connectivity. If there is low network
connectivity in an area then the organisation would not be able to efficiently provide services.
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What is the future for m-commerce?
The future of m-commerce is that its trends are its own growth. People use the internet on mobile
devices more often than they do on any other technological device. It is seen that almost 80% of
customers that are using smartphones want to avail information from their mobile devices and
prefer to shop form them. M-commerce will make advancement and innovation in the I.T sector
as its increase would make new technologies arise and will also be an easier and efficient way
for the customer to shop (Retail Dive, 2019).
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Conclusion
It can be seen that the awareness of mobile technology has been noticed by both the
organisations and customers. Though there are some limitations to m-commerce it has been
spreading as the use of internet on smartphones has.
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References
 Agarwal, R.K., 2018. E-Commerce & M-Commerce Revolution: Problems and
Prospects. Economic Development of India, 1(1), pp.95-112.
 CEOworld.biz, 2018. M-Commerce Trends You’ll Be Talking About In 2018. [Online]
CEOworld.biz. Available at: https://ceoworld.biz/2018/02/27/m-commerce-trends-youll-
be-talking-about-in-2018/ [Accessed: 11 April 2019]
 Retail Dive, 2019. Changing landscape of mobile commerce and what it means for
brands. [Online] ] Retail Dive. Available at:
https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/changing-landscape-of-mobile-
commerce-and-what-it-means-for-brands [Accessed: 11 April 2019]
 Retail Dive, 2019. The state of mobile commerce and what the future holds. [Online]
Retail Dive. Available at: https://www.retaildive.com/news/the-state-of-mobile-
commerceand-what-the-future-holds/413872/ [Accessed: 11 April 2019]
 Yassierli, Y., Vinsensius, V. and Mohamed, M.S., 2019. The Importance of Usability
Aspect in M-Commerce Application for Satisfaction and Continuance Intention. Makara
Journal of Technology, 22(3), pp.149-158.
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