M COMMERCE

INTODUCTION
M-commerce is the use of handheld devices to perform online transactions. It's a category of
electronic commerce transactions performed via mobile devices, such as smartphones and
tablets. Discovering the uses of m-commerce can be essential to a business and help improve
its customers' experiences with its brand.
Mobile commerce or M-commerce refers to the business platform where you can buy and sell
products and services with the help of your smartphones (wireless handheld devices). With
the advances in technology, smartphones and tablets are equipped with various new features,
and shopping software applications are among the most popular features of them all. In this
article, you will read about the core concepts of M-commerce, its advantages, and the
limitations that you might face when trying to build your own M-commerce platform.
You might be surprised, but different M-commerce categories serve different purposes. You
have mobile shopping, mobile banking, and mobile payments. The M-commerce applications
that use mobile shopping functionality allow customers to view and purchase products from
their mobile devices. On the other hand, mobile banking allows you to make financial
transactions using handheld devices, such as smartphones. This type of M-commerce
transaction is carried out over a secure network, and the banks provide dedicated apps for
these transfers.
(A man purchasing a product using mobile commerce platform on his phone)
Lastly, we have mobile payments, such as Google Pay, Paypal, and other digital wallets that
allow customers to purchase a product without asking them to swipe the card. Samsung has
integrated Samsung Pay in its mobile phones where you once scan your credit or debit card,
and then you only need to put your phone on the payment terminal, and the transaction will
be done successfully.
FEATURES OF M COMMERCE

Mobile commerce has features that make it significantly different to E-commerce using
desktops and laptops:
- Mobile devices tend to have limited space: a typical smartphone or tablet would have less
than 10% storage space compared to desktops and laptops.
- Mobile devices also have significantly smaller display screens to allow easier mobility.
This means the design of websites, apps, and applications for M-commerce needs to take into
consideration what are the essential requirements needed to fit into these limited displays.
- Mobile devices need to operate on battery for longer hours. This feature is essential if the
device to be considered to be true mobile. Long and continuous use of the processing power
of the mobile devices would drain the battery.
- Limited processing power and processing memory Random Access Memory (RAMs).
Typical mobile devices are not equipped to perform extensive processing as traditional
desktops and laptops. The processer is designed to self-cool without the need for a fan to
keep the mobile devices both slim and reduce the use of the battery. Thus many traditional
applications could not run efficiently on mobile devices.
- Internet traffic on mobile devices needs to consider that many mobile devices would be
using mobile network. Both the devices and the network cannot handle extensive traffic
although the new generations of tablets and smartphones have been designed to handle faster
and better Internet traffic at speeds now reaching 5G or 100GB per second.
- The operating systems on mobile devices have been designed not to be large and reduce its
extensive use of the processor and RAMs. This has come at a cost in reducing the tools and
options that would have been otherwise available in typical desktop or laptop.
- Mobile devices come with extensive features not found traditionally in desktop or laptop
devices. Features include: high-resolution cameras, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Near
Field Communication (NFC), SMS messages, calling, and access to extensive libraries for
application downloads known as Apps.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL COMMERCE AND E COMMERCE

BASIS FOR
TRADITIONAL COMMERCE E-COMMERCE
COMPARISON
Meaning Traditional commerce is a branch of business e-Commerce means carryng out
which focuses on the exchange of products commercial transactions or
and services, and includes all those activities exchange of information,
which encourages exchange, in some way or electronically on the internet.
the other.
Processing of Manual Automatic
Transactions
Accessibility Limited Time 24×7×365
Physical inspection Goods can be inspected physically before Goods cannot be inspected
purchase. physically before purchase.
Customer Face-to-face Screen-to-face
interaction
Scope of business Limited to particular area. Worldwide reach
Information No uniform platform for exchange of Provides a uniform platform for
exchange information. information exchange.
Resource focus Supply side Demand side
Business Linear End-to-end
Relationship
Marketing One way marketing One-to-one marketing
Payment Cash, cheque, credit card, etc. Credit card, fund transfer etc.
Delivery of goods Instantly Takes time