ENTREPRENERSHIP AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

MOBILE COMMERCE
Abstract

M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless
handheld devices such as cellular telephone and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Known as next-
generation e-commerce, m-commerce enables users to access the Internet without needing to find a
place to plug in. M-Commerce and E-Commerce made people to transfer funds, shopping, bidding
without going to shops within a moment. E-commerce is conducted on laptops, desktop computers
using internet whereas M-Commerce is conducted on mobile phones using internet. M-Commerce is
E-commerce on mobile phones. E-Commerce introduced anytime online transactions and M-
Commerce introduced Anytime Anywhere online transactions. The ubiquity, reachability, mobility and
flexibility features of M-Commerce have increased the mobile users and mobile internet subscribers
in India. The potential and the growth rate of the Indian Mobile Commerce market hints at an exciting
future ahead. The market size is about 3% of the US non-store retailer’s sales ($560 billion). In the US,
the non-store retailers are growing at the rate of 13.2 %. Currently, an online sale in India is dominated
only in the metros. As of 2015, smartphone users in India was at 220 million, growing at 23%. It is
predicted that by 2020 India will overtake the US as the second largest market for smartphones, after
China. This paper highlights on the M-Commerce, its advantages, disadvantages, future growth of M-
Commerce in India.

Introduction

M-Commerce is implemented through mobile applications. People are using mobile applications
instead of web application for utility bill payment, ticket booking, fund transfer, email and so on. Thus
M-Commerce is replacing E-commerce. With these advantages M-Commerce have disadvantages such
as tiny screen of device, weak processors, limited memory, poor resolutions, poor data entry, and lack
of WAP-enabled devices, expensive data speed, and shortage of bandwidth. Indian retail customers
are taking strongly to mobile commerce, with nearly 83% of people owning a smartphone shopping
online on their mobile phones, India ‘s market for m-commerce would expand. In particular, customers
in the age group of 25-34 are taking to their mobile phones to shop online, with 90% of customers in
this group doing so. These are some of the results that emerged from the ―M-Commerce Trends in
India 2016‖. While a large number of customers have used their mobiles to shop online, there is still
much room for growth in terms of the frequency of online shopping. Only 53% of those surveyed said
that they had shopped online within the last month. Further, only 28% of respondents said that they
shopped on their phones at least once a week

M-COMMERCE

Indian retail customers are taking strongly to mobile commerce, with nearly 83% of people owning a
smartphone shopping online on their mobile phones. In particular, customers in the age group of 25-
34 are taking to their mobile phones to shop online, with 90% of customers in this group doing so.
These are some of the results that emerged from the ―State of M-Commerce 2016‖ survey conducted
by Regalia Inc. While a large number of customers have used their mobiles to shop online, there is still
much room for growth in terms of the frequency of online shopping. Only 53% of those surveyed said
that they had shopped online within the last month. Further, only 25% of respondents said that they
shopped on their phones at least once a week. There seems to be a gender divide in the frequency of
online shopping, with more Vol. 5 Special Issue 1 August 2017 ISSN: 2320-4168 Shan lax International
Journal of Commerce pg. 75 men (63%) doing so at least once a month than women (40%). The lion‘s

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share of online retail is divided between three platforms – Flipkart (44%), Amazon (32%), and Snapdeal
(19%). Interestingly, preference between these platforms is segmented by age, with Flipkart the
preferred retailer for 49% of respondents in the 18-24 age group, but only 35% in the 25-34 age group.
Snapdeal received more support in the 25-34 age group (25%) than in the 18-24 group (only 13%). The
two biggest factors influencing a customer‘s decision to shop online are Cashon-delivery (CoD) (34%)
and free delivery (34%). CoD was the preferred payment mode for the majority of customers, with
62% preferring this over net banking, credit/debit cards or mobile wallets. Mobile apps are the
preferred way for customers to shop on their phones, with an overwhelming 94% declaring they
preferred apps to mobile websites. The study also found that while 81% of respondents said they were
unaffected by mobile ads, a higher percentage of women (25%) said that ads influenced their shopping
behaviour than men (17%). Online shopping is only set to grow with 31% of those who have not
shopped online thus far saying they planned to do so in the future. What has kept 75% of such
shoppers away is concern over product quality.

The differences between E-commerce and M-commerce

Our world today is so much different from our previous generations. With the invention of Internet,
everything is fast and happens online. Long gone are those days when people shop around 3-4 stores
with the total distance of a few kilometers deciding which product to buy. These days, all
considerations are done online before we made it to the physical store and most of the products are
just a few clicks away from us. The terms E-commerce or web store have been on the market for a
while, but M-commerce and mobile shopping app etc. are quite newcomers.

Advantage of M-commerce

GROWTH OF M-COMMERCE IN INDIA Various mobile applications are developed for Smartphone
users. State Bank Freedom of State Bank of India , iMobile of ICICI , Axis Mobile for Android of AXIS
Bank are the mobile banking applications which are used for on line fund transfer, utility bill payment.
IRCTC Connect is used for railway ticket reservation, Mpesa by vodafone is used to transfer fund, pay
utility bills, Book My Show is used to book movie tickets. Ubiquitous feature of M-Commerce is turning
people from E-Commerce to M-Commerce. The development of low-cost smart phones and low
mobile tariffs helped for tremendous growth in mobile internet subscribers and hence tremendous
growth of MCommerce in India. In India 60% of internet users access the internet via their mobile
phones. The number is expected to reach 436 million by 2019, estimates IAMAI-KPMG report. Mobile
internet is the next BIG revolution in India and as per a study conducted by National Conference on
Contemporary Issues in Commerce and Management Sciences pg. 76 Sriram College of Arts and
Science, Thiruvallur Google India and IPSOS, around 94% Indian Smartphone users have used their
smart device to access internet from their phone. 56% of smartphone users in the country access the
internet multiple times a day (in US, the number stands at 53%). 40% users surf the Net at least once
a day. Only 6% never use their phone for connecting to the Web (11% for US). About 76% of
smartphone users in India access social networking sites on their devices compared to 54 per cent in
the US. 77% of smartphone owners listen to music, while 33 per cent use it for playing games and 32
per cent read newspapers or magazine

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Conclusion

By considering the features of M-Commerce people are using mobile applications for utility bill
payment, fund transfer, railway ticket reservations, movie ticket booking and so on. Advancement and
low cost of smartphones, reduced mobile internet tariff, busy life of people have attracted the people
to do transactions on mobile device. Smartphones are developed to overcome the limitations of M-
Commerce. Due to increasing access to smartphones and growing mobile Internet penetration over
the past few years, the country has seen a staggering rise in everyday transactions carried out via
mobile devices. A report released last year by market research firm Zinnov estimated that India‘s
market for mobile commerce would expand from $2 billion in 2014 to $19 billion by 2019. No doubt
mobile commerce needs some development in the specific areas like secure transaction, better
shopping experience, and enhanced graphics. Other than this mobile commerce opens the new era of
shopping.

References

1. Dr. Sachin Gupta , Mr. Anand Vyas, (2014), Benefits and Drawbacks of M-Commerce in India: A
Review‖ , International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering
Vol. 3, Issue 4.

2. Andrew Cook, Tanya Goette (2006), Mobile Electronic Commerce: What Is It? Who Uses It? And Why
Use It? ―, Communications of the IIMA, Volume 6 Issue 4

3. http://www.regalix.com/by_regalix/research/reports/m-commerce-trends-india-2016/

4. https://dazeinfo.com/2016/12/09/mcommerce-ecommerce-industry-growth-india-2020/

5.http://www.regalix.com/about/news/m-commerce-arrived-india-room-much-growthresults-m-
commerce-trends-india

6. http://www.riversand.com/blog/mobile-commerce-india-to-jump-in-2017/6.

7.http://www.iamwire.com/2013/10/10-reasons-mobile-commerce-india-bigger-
onlinecommerce/21330 8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-commerce 9. Gupta DS, Vyas M. (2014),
Benefits and Drawbacks of MCommerce in India: A Review. IJARCCE; 3(4):6327-6328-6329

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