What Will M-commerce be Like in 10 Years

Most of you might have encountered the term ‘M-commerce’ which is the buzzword of the year 2015. E-commerce is a purpose-ridden pursuit and so is M-commerce. The year 2015 is expounded to be the Year of M-commerce. Before delving deep into the intricacies and finer nuances of M-commerce, let us first look into the definition of M-commerce.

M-commerce be Like in 10 Years

Understanding M-commerce

A thorough understanding of e-commerce is a distant dream without taking m-commerce into account.  M-commerce signifies mobile commerce. It is an umbrella term encompassing the activities of browsing, purchasing and selling of goods and services on mobile devices such as cellphones and tablets. It is a form of online shopping done predominantly on smartphones. To ensure a seamless shopping experience to customers, many online marketplace software are trying their best to implement mobile e-commerce capabilities within their e-commerce marketplace scripts.

M-commerce in India

When it comes to internet traffic, India stands second to none. According to Morgan Stanley Research reports, a stupendous 65% of internet traffic is attributed to mobile phones. 41 percent of Indians who did online shopping accessed the e-commerce marketplace sites via mobiles. Needless to say, the figures are bound to skyrocket. Given the unparalleled advancements in technology, the number of people in India with access to mobile phones will reach to 700 million by the end of 2015.  

According to the genuine reports of International Telecommunication Union 2012, there are more than 7 billion mobile phones across the continents and this number is almost twice the number of PCs. Indian e-commerce is expected to be the fasted growing e-commerce business and is touted to touch $100 billion by 2020. Higher the e-commerce, higher is the m-commerce. 

India in particular and the world in general are experiencing m-commerce revolution. Here is a newsworthy mention- India e-commerce companies are going to experience a marked shift from e-commerce to m-commerce. Celebrated Indian e-commerce website Flipkart announced its plans of going mobile only in the near future. Its subsidiary fashion portal Myntra is now accessible on mobile devices only. Kunal Bahl, the CEO of Snapdeal remarked on Snapdeal’s strategy and ascertained that it is all about lead generation through smartphone adoption. Snapdeal’s sales have increased by 25 times in 2014. All these facts are eloquent testimonies of assert that M-commerce is undoubtedly the next big thing accelerating with blinding pace.

Near Future of M-commerce

According to the global investment banking, securities and management firm, Goldman Sachs, worldwide consumer spending via mobile phones and smart phones is envisioned to be around $626 billion by the end of 2018.  Goldman Sachs’s reports further propound that M-commerce represents 46.6% of all e-commerce sales in 2018. Here is a jaw-dropping statement made by the M-commerce pundits- In 2018, 14.4% of the global population on our planet Earth will make at-least one purchase on a mobile device.

M-commerce trends and M-commerce ten years from today

  1. Mobile Payment Systems: The year 2014 witnessed the entry of Apple Pay and Google Wallet digital payment systems. Known for their farsightedness and extraordinary vision, the technology giants have presented their customers with viable platforms for physical and online purchases vis-à-vis mobile phones. Quite clearly, these digital wallet payment systems are stationed to be in perfect synchrony with various payment methods such as credit cards, visas and Master Cards. These digital wallet services are posited to be the perfect substitutes of card-based payment cash registers. Thanks to the meritorious NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, one shouldn’t be astonished to witness mobile phones being swiped at swiping counters. Ever since the inception of Apple Pay, Apple has to its name and fame over 150,000 mobile payment transactions per day. This figure is much higher than that of Google’s digital Wallet. Google however has witnessed 20-fold increase in the usage of Google Wallet and more than 10% of retail stores in US accept Google Wallet payment system. Given the outstanding stats, these mobile payment systems may become all the more ubiquitous and indispensable. 10 years from now, one is certain to witness competitors in this mobile payment niche.
  2. Wearable revolution: In the year 2014, more than 19 million units of wearable products have been sold throughout the world. This is expected to escalate to a whopping 112 million by the end of 2018. 10 years from now, the figure is expected to reach a billion. Wearable devices provide a seminal avenue for mobile commerce.
  3. Mobile Beacons: Ten years from now, mobile beacons become dime a dozen and their diffusion in retail stores can be deemed a votive offering. Mobile beacons are miniscule devices that provide location specific insights to customers. Marketplace owners can benefit a great deal by analyzing the customer feedback reports provided by these miniscule devices. Walmart, world’s largest retailer pioneered the usage of Mobile Beacons in the year 2014. Technical evangelists and m-commerce pundits claim that mobile beacons, if used to their complete potential, can enhance retail sales by 12%. 10 years from now, the economic benefits of using mobile beacons will be prodigious.
  4. Mobile Cloud: Cloud hosting and storage services such as PaaS- Platform as a Service, SaaS- Software as a Service, IaaS- Infrastructure as a Service and the most recent one XaaS-Anything as a Service have hogged the limelight for their seamless and swift services in e-commerce industry. However, these services couldn’t integrate well with customers who had access to mobile internet. However, cloud services are now-a-days tailored to the needs of customers thereby sorting out the difficulties and providing that extra drive. Mobile apps can now communicate with cloud hosted data.
  5. Mobile Image Recognition: Several French housewares have already leveraged the features of mobile visual search. Mobile Image recognition provides an impetus for m-commerce applications. To all intents and purposes, mobile image recognition technology is envisaged to yield rich dividends.

Mobile marketing, mobile advertising and mobile virtual wallets spice up M-commerce industry and shall set this industry on a roll. Contextual commerce, an amalgamation of e-commerce and m-commerce comes into the picture, and 10 years from now, contextual commerce is sure to find its feet.