It seems that most people have a mobile phone or PDA these days, and all advertisers have a message they want to sell to consumers. It's the perfect scenario to allow mobile commerce (m-commerce) to truly take off.
But what are m-commerce players doing to overcome the poor usability, trust, security and fulfilment issues that have so far made most online shopping mechanisms a chore, and what's in store for mobile consumers in the future?
Table of Contents
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Overview: The mobile age
So what do you get when you send e-commerce out on the road, accessible by a mobile phone? M-commerce, of course. |
The market & what to sell
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Flying in the face of many recent dotcom plans, it is suggested that a good business model is necessary for a successful m-commerce offering. Remember - the mobile can't be a supermarket; you have to target very specific audiences to make the process as simple as possible. | |
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Who wants it
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Two key markets for mobile commerce will probably emerge that will require very different strategies: those who have a computer at home or work and just want m-commerce for those things they need straight away, and those who don't have their own PC at the moment but still want to access email and other Internet services through a relatively cheap device. | | |
SMS, LBS, SMS: An acronym-off
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M-commerce doesn't just happen by magic - there's all sorts of tricky technology to help make it happen. While e-commerce largely relies on customers using computers, it is much harder to cater for those on mobile devices due to the need for wireless connections. ZDNet takes a quick look at all the acronyms (WAP, SMS, LBS) and a couple of other useful services.
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Usability
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| The trouble with m-commerce is that mobile phones have such a poor interface for anything other than entering phone numbers. PDAs aren't much better with relatively low resolution and the same connection rates making the process slow. Here's some basic tips for budding m-commerce developers. | | |
Power to the People
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With such an untried market, customers will only choose to use sites which earn their trust and give them a feeling of security. With so many interface issues, how can you convey these feelings to the customer? One way to find out is to ask your customers. | | |
What can you buy NOW?
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Most m-commerce strategies have not yet hit the mainstream in Australia and the players who are providing the technology and infrastructure aren't household names, yet. Who are the players in the market right now and what do they have to offer. | | |
Mmmmoving into the future
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It's important to learn the lessons from e-commerce, especially that simple designs are often the best. Even though m-commerce is still young, now is the time to learn from other's mistakes.
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