Facts About Mobile
Commerce
The Mobile Commerce Guide from Sybase is full of practicable
tips and valuable insights into mobile commerce - the process of conducting
transactions, marketing, and communication via a mobile device. Here, we
highlight some must-know facts.
1. It’s a global trend.
Mobile commerce consists of two categories: mobile financial
services and mobile CRM. Due to limited payment methods and limited access to
the internet, emerging economies tend to use mostly mobile payment and money
transfer services. Developed economies, on the other hand, tend to embrace
mobile banking services as an entry point into mobile financial services.
Here are two examples that illustrate global adoption of mobile
commerce. Since it launched in Kenya in 2007, M-PESA, a mobile payment service
offered by Safaricom, a Vodafone affiliate, has 13 million registered users and
handles mobile transactions valued at $400 million each month.
ABI Research estimates that North American sales of physical
goods purchased via a mobile device exceeded $1 billion in 2010. That is a 33
percent increase over its 2009 forecast of $750 million.
A report by Juniper Research predicts that mobile payments
will reach $600 billion globally before 2013. Some regions, though, are more
mobile than others. In a 2010 survey, the Asia-Pacific region consistently
ranked ahead of EMEA and the Americas in reported use of mobile communities,
mobile banking, vouchers and coupons sent to a phone, and other mobile commerce
services.
2. It’s catching on across industries.
Mobile commerce services make it possible for people to
perform everyday financial transactions, like paying for parking, from their
mobile phone. People who previously had no access to financial services are
able to save money, send money between family members, and pay merchants for
goods and services with their mobile phone.
Industries outside of the financial sector have also been
integrating mobile commerce. Utilities companies update customers on their
consumption and enable them to pay bills. Restaurants, hotels, and cinemas
provide mobile reservation and booking services.
The retail industry makes use of end-to-end mobile commerce
services: from mobile marketing and awareness campaigns, to mobile loyalty
programs, vouchers, and surveys, to mobile point-of-sale technology.
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