Usability
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.
Some basic tips for budding m-commerce developers are:
- Entering information must be kept to a minimum if you want customers to persist with the exercise.
- M-commerce applications should have specific purposes. If your company offers a variety of services you might like to provide an index but also allow customers to bookmark the specific part of the site they might want direct access to.
- Limit the number of products and services available to make selection easier and keep the navigation system to a minimum. Three menu selections at most should be used to locate the product. Then the actual purchasing process should also be minimal. The last things you want is for them to give up through the process because it is just too hard.
- Also, consider the total cost of using the technology. Customers are unlikely to pay for the convenience of the WAP service if the benefit is not clear. For example if it costs the dial up cost, call charges, item cost as well as the cost of delivery.
Because of the display size it is also hard to show a shopping basket on the screen, and the result is that most sales processes make it hard to purchase more than one particular product at a time. Unfortunately, the customer has to repeat the process to buy a second product decreasing the chance they will do so. However, the linear process significantly reduces the complexity of the task. This can encourage customers to revisit the store and reduces the apprehension to complete the process a second time for repeat purchases.
Back to M-commerce Special: Coming soon to a mobile near you
