Most of us are shopaholics and given some time and a few dimes, we are ready to splurge. However, going to the retail store physically, searching for products and checking out after standing in the long queue appears quite an uphill task in the age where people are extremely tied-up. It takes away the thrill of shopping. Gone are the days when people flocked to mobile shops to buy a new smartphone, eager to look for new models – it’s all under one platform now – ecommerce. Most of the brick-and-mortar stores went online a long way back and the era of online commerce was ushered in by e-commerce platforms.
Most of the organizations online are being challenged by agile startups, rapidly changing customer expectations and new regulatory frameworks that encourage innovation and competition. To engage with a new generation of tech-savvy consumers organizations must diversify their offering by providing digital channels including web, mobile web, and apps. But it will not be wrong to say that mobile is where the maximum traction is. It is no longer a luxury but a companion for millennials, who also happen to be prime audience for retailers.
India’s major e-commerce players Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and Club Factory have a robust mobile platform which aims to give users an experience close to standalone apps. India’s e-commerce companies are racing to embrace the mobile, with some experimenting with ditching the web platforms entirely to go mobile-only, as online fashion retailer Myntra did earlier.
M-commerce is extensively spreading across the globe. According to a market research analyst, “The global m-commerce market will grow at a CAGR of more than 27% by 2020”. Consumers are increasingly spending most of their time on smartphones, we already have 2.5 billion smartphone users in 2019. Over 50% of searches are made through smartphones at present and this number is expected to increase to 70% by 2020. As shopping on mobile devices become a routine, and desktop computers become obsolete, retailers will be more interested in the consumer’s convenience, location and other aspects of online shopping that are relevant to mobile environments. The paradigm shift from E-commerce to M-commerce and extending to S-commerce indicates the changing psyche of shoppers and the flexibility they demand in online shopping.
