An Outlook of Mobile Commerce

An Outlook of Mobile Commerce

Driven by a widespread understanding of the Internet’s capabilities, the power of electronic commerce, and advances in wireless technologies and devices, mobile commerce (m-commerce) is rapidly approaching the business forefront.

Mobile commerce is defined in the academic literature in the areas of management information systems, management, finance, accounting, as well as marketing. Each area has its own distinctive point of view as to what constitutes mobile commerce. Some definitions overlap, others are unique to the nature of the business unit, and many are ad hoc. For instance, Management Information Systems looks at mobile commerce from the perspective of the technologies involved, finance and accounting look to develop the financial advantages of mobile commerce, and marketing views things from the standpoint of customer promotion, transactions and service. Given these different perspectives, it is important to identify a general definition of mobile commerce that can be used by the entire organization as a whole, while still being applicable from each departmental standpoint.

When defining mobile commerce in a marketing context, it is important to focus both from the perspectives of the firm and the customer in order to understand the value and benefit that each will gain from engaging in mobile commerce transactions. Mobile commerce should be described in terms of its distinguishable elements from other marketing channels used by the consumer, and its inimitable abilities to uniquely foster customer growth for the firm. Mobile commerce is unique in that, unlike other marketing channels, it is location and time independent.

With all things considered, we offer a definition of mobile commerce that is based in a marketing framework, with its unique dimensions: mobile commerce refers to the ability to offer value through virtual transactions that allow for location-specificity and time-sensitivity, as well the ability build personalized relationships with the customer. Mobile commerce applications fall into three main categories: transaction management, digital content delivery, and telemetry services.

With a brief outlook into mobile commerce, we now proceed to get an understanding about mobile marketing which will enable us to make a smooth transition into understanding the features, perception and prospective aspects of mobile advertising and how organizations and marketers can utilize mobile marketing to better serve the consumers and be beneficial to the organizations as well.

Introduction to Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is advertising or marketing related messages sent to a mobile phone. The emphasis of the marketing communication is via short message services (SMS) but can also include emails accessed by mobile phones and multi-media messaging services (MMS). Mobile marketing (m-marketing) is still in its infancy but is expected to grow rapidly in the near future. However, researchers are still unclear as to the key issues that are likely to impact on the success of m-marketing and the levels of adoption by consumers.

In context of m-business and m-commerce, m-marketing is defined as the application of marketing to the mobile environment of mobile phones, smart phones and personal digital assistants (PDA).

There are many ways how marketers can use m-marketing to attract customers, it can