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Mobile Culture in Business

Lately the push is to have everything at your finger tips, where ever you are. Laptops that are lighter, faster and have the same power behind them as a desktop are all the rage, HotSpots (WIFI) are popping up everywhere because more people are adapting to this lifestyle so it only makes sense that people would want to make payments wirelessly and securely too. The mobile lifestyle is in full effect and there are a number of services starting to emerge. M-commerce or mobile commerce is born out of the idea to use your cell phone to send and recieve payments.

PayPal takes the lead

PayPal has recently launched a service known as “PayPal Mobile” that allows people to pay and recieve payments in a text message sent you your cell phone. Think about how people a few years back thought about ecommerce and you’ll start to see why m-commerce could be so big.

If you can’t beat’em join’em - Why m-commerce may not beat e-commerce

while m-commerce is good for a few things right now it still cannot compare to e-commerce for the simple fact that e-commerce covers a wider range of business needs. I could personally see more businesses using WiFi solutions to recieve payments in Retail environments. You can see that trend emerging right now. I see m-commerce as an additional service to e-commerce for businesses looking to impliment the most full and complete solution.

Let’s face it, if your business has a physical location (Brick and Mortar), an e-commerce site, and the ability to transact payments via mobile commerce this is something that would be useful to a wide array of business owners and companies.

Example:

Let’s say a bar/night club owner approaches me to develop and integrate a complete commerce solution that would allow them to except payments via the web (e-commerce), via a physical terminal (through a POS system), and via phone (m-commerce). The first part of understanding this problem is to understand the way the business currently operates and its Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and Opportunities.

A nightclub seems the best place to adapt a solution like this because most people who go to nightclubs, like it or not are up on technology and can be the most easiest people to win over in the adoption of using a new technology.

Currently this NightClub only uses a physical POS system, they have a website but they currently do not use e-commerce to allow payments for concerts they the club runs on a regular basis and lately they’ve seen more and more people leaving the club because the bar area is so crowded the customer cannot get near enough to buy their drinks and food so they head to the competing bar down the street where they know they can get the food and drinks they are in search of.

The Solution:

The first thing i would be looking to do in a situation like this is integrate all 3 systems (POS,e-commerce, and m-commerce) into the same interface if entirely possible. Other considerations you would need to make are having at least two separate people to man the e-commerce and m-commerce systems. If people are placing orders with their cell phones someone needs to be monitoring the queue (ie. a bar manager) and to make sure that things are running smoothly online someone skilled would need to be running the e-commerce site in the days up to the event and on an ongoing basis, especially if you experience a high volume of traffic.

I think the most successful businesses across the board will be utilizing new technologies for years to come but that is only half of the battle. The other half is developing companies and organizations that are responsive to change and willing to adapt and test new technologies, having different strategies when it comes to training employees and lastly a way to see these technologies through the adoption period so that they become a cornerstone of your business for years to come.

Luc

just add mCommerce!