Power to the people
Trust
Trust is a key issue with e-commerce solutions and there are several criteria which people use to identify whether a Web site is trustworthy or not, like contact details, secure transactions and whether it's a well known brand name. The issue of trust is even more important when using m-commerce. There is much less room for including privacy statements and other information to put customers at ease. Many people use the professional look and feel of the site as an indicator of trust but this rarely comes across through a mobile device interface. The preference to only interact with companies you trust via brand name is likely to limit the merchants you purchase from.
Security
So what happens if you lose your phone? Does your whole life have to start again because of the loss of the phone PIN? In a perfect world there would also be software so that you could back up your phone to the computer meaning the loss of the phone would not mean having to type all those names in again. People may also perceive that because it is a wireless device that the data transfer is also less secure.
It's all about the people
The only way to find answers to many of the questions about the usability of m-commerce is, strangely enough, to put it in the hands of customers. Even informal customer testing is better than none. Often developers and marketers get a little too attached to their solution and can't see the flaws it may contain. Working on a project day-in and day-out means that you'll start to compensate for the problems. Unfortunately, real customers won't be so forgiving.
M-commerce is currently aimed at a very small population of consumers and this allows vendors to target products very specifically. However, as m-commerce becomes more mainstream, it's important the processes are designed to suit a more generalised audience.
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