What is M-Commerce? Why is it necessary for your Ecommerce Business?
Usage of Ecommerce is skyrocketing these days by means of ease it delivers in fulfilling our day to day requirements. The hike in technological advancements has given various business giants an opportunity in targeting their potential audience like never before. If you have been following our past blogs, you must be well-versed with the productive features and advantages of an Ecommerce business. Another term that follows Ecommerce right behind is M-commerce.
What is M-Commerce?
M-commerce stands for Mobile Commerce which is all about selling and buying of products or services through handheld devices like Smartphones of Tablets. Introduction of M commerce in your business strategy makes you target reach you without using desktop or laptop. The best examples can be Amazon, Flipkart, Mobile Banking apps etc. 65% of the Ecommerce sales are actually happening through M-commerce which has been given birth by leading mobile app development companies. The content delivery through m commerce has become secure, flexible and scalable over time. The industries that have been mostly affected with the emergence and development of M commerce include-
1. Telecommunications is the industry that has been heavily affected by M commerce in a positive manner. The account reviews, service charge, bill payments and every associated thing can be easily performed by applications running on the handheld devices
2. Financial services like mobile banking and brokerage services and trading can be conducted by applications running over the handheld device.
3. Online shopping is heavily done through mobile devices or tablets these days. People in their spare time browsing through the plethora of options they have on various mobile application.
4. Information providers such as News channels, sports figure indicators etc. have stepped into online mediums, specifically M commerce. People now have News applications installed in their phones which facilitates them in receiving important News and Figures on time.
Categories of M-commerce:
M-commerce can be categorized into mobile banking, mobile shopping and mobile payment. Mobile shopping is an amazing service that is being provided by crores of business owners ranging from small scale to giants. Applications like Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart etc. have allow people to browse through plenty of options sitting at their homes. There is no need to move a single flex even to buy something that is unique. Some of the amazing delivery services have also supports the online market by letting things reach safely to the destination. Mobile banking is all about carry out secured transactions through phones and such applications are generally provided by bank institutions. Using such apps, you do not have to open bank’s net banking service over your desktop. You can simply carry out transactions through phones or tablets. Mobile payments help users to purchase products in-person by using mobile device. Popular Digital wallets like Apple Pay, Paytm allow users to buy products or services without needing to swipe a card or pay with physical cash. Mobile applications are gaining access into every single industry slowly and steadily making people do all the activities more comfortably than ever before.
Benefits of MCommerce:
1. Accessible: Through M commerce, your customers become accessible to you in the quickest manner. Even if you send one push notification to your customers, they will open in a second because generally people have phones in their hands. It is better to have mobile application rather than a mobile optimized websites. Nowadays, in the era of Myntra, Flipkart and Amazon, people do not like to open browsers that serve at relatively low speed. Mobile devices have taken over the whole world and the emerging development and marketing technologies have made it easy for the business owners to target their potential users in best possible way.
2. High usage of mobile phones: According to Statista, “The number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019. In 2016, an estimated 62.9 percent of the population worldwide already owned a mobile phone. The mobile phone penetration is forecasted to continue to grow, rounding up to 67 percent by 2019.” So, by the figures, it is clear that the mobile phone users are going to increase so there is more scope for you to reach masses. This is the reason why businesses are tilted more toward serving mobile users either from apps or mobile optimized websites.
3. Scope for Sales: The sales through mobile phones have come on the equal level to what statistics show through desktop or may be laptops. A Forrester study has shown that 50% of the total $12 Million sales happen through mobile devices in India. The same is believed to grow by an amount of $51 billion by 2020. If you will yourself notice your purchase behaviour, you will realise that almost all the online by purchases made by you in the recent past is from your mobile devices. It is cent percent true if I talk about my personal experience or even the professional circles I grew up with.
4. Become available 24*7: This point is not specifically about M commerce but for the whole E commerce characteristics. It is obvious that no one can work 24*7. Human minds do have a turn off point over which we cannot work productively. So, give rest to your sales team working at night and adopt the blessing of technology by serving online. Through M commerce opportunities, consider that you have given one sales person to each of your customers on their phones. Make your business available to your users 24*7 and prosper.
5. Win the heart of search engines: Specifically Google! We are nuts behind taking the website on top over Google results for our favorite keywords and Google is nuts behind serving the best user experience in the world. So, what’s the catch here? Google supports mobile friendliness of websites. You must have often heard your marketing team discussing about mobile responsiveness of the website because it is one of the major most factors when it comes to your rankings. For good rankings, you need to work over the mobile friendliness of your website.
6. Use tailored content: By means of a mobile app, you can easily deliver personalized experience to your users. You will know user location, social media profiles, interests, items viewed etc. and all these things can be utilized to target your audience in a personalized manner. You can set certain preferences based on the user type and the data gathered from their browsing and purchasing behaviour. Be as personal and specific as possible. The more personal, the better! For example, Amazon mobile app has made 1,000,000 customers in the first two years of its launch.
7. Get deeper analytics: Knowing your customers is very important in the online world. It brings prosperity to your business. It is essential to know demands data and most importantly the basic information such as age, location, purchasing history and browsing behaviour. You can build and apply user analytics of different levels of sophistication in your mobile app. It depends the most on your strategy and the marketing & development budget available with you for making a mobile app. You will be able to gain insights to your target audience a lot with such data. Names, Contact numbers, Buying patterns, emails and many more things are required to target your users the best way.
8. Cut down marketing cost: If you have a mobile app, it does most of the things for you. You can cut down your marketing campaign costs as you do have people to spread the word about you. In comparison to a web store, mobile app development services, maintenance and support are cheaper. For example, an average featured app maintenance cost is just 20% of the development cost at initial phase. So, for the application with the development cost of $50,000, you need to spend $10,000 annually for maintenance and support. Also with the help of the customer data that you have collected, you can really boost your sales to 40%.
9. Mobile hardware usage: With the help of M commerce, you are able to use the hardware features of mobile phones which improvises your targeting process. For example, scanning codes through camera or obtaining location through GPS. There are many more things such as Compass, accelerometer, gyroscope etc. that can be used very well for commercial purposes. One of the most important benefits of mobile applications is you have locator through which users can be easily navigated to the nearest stores.
M commerce is an important concept if you deal online. You have to start serving your target audience through mobile phones to increase your sales quickly. No one prefers to go on browser and search for you and even if they reach on to your mobile responsive website, the important content might hide away due to their screen size. E Commerce applications such as Retail apps, Mobile banking, shopping application etc. have gained recognition and popularity in the past few years. Making it super easy for target customers to buy from you is still a business quest for many.