Mobile-Commerce - the next revolution on e-commerce

The term mobile commerce or m-commerce was originally created in the year of 1997 by Kevin Duffey during the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, and means "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology." In simple words is "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket."

The years pass by and now we are in the digital age, and everywhere we look we see mobile devices, free Wi-Fi almost everywhere, and new technologies arising every day.

So, it is clear to say that the mobile e-commerce, or m-commerce is expected to reach 626 billion dollars until 2018.

It is easy to figure out why? Because of the growing number of mobile devices and the reconfiguration of the consumer behaviour.

Just to give you an idea, and according to data released from Goldman Sachs, the purchases through mobile devices were about 204 billion dollars in 2014 (worldwide). Within four years we will see this amount growing more than 400 billion dollars. With this numbers we can say that in 2018 the total spending on m-commerce will reach the same amount that the spending in e-commerce.

The growing power of mobile devices is the basis of m-commerce consolidation. Today, smartphones and tablets are not only used to make purchases over the Internet, or to be connected to social media, but it also serves as our "digital wallets".

The NFC (Near Field Communication) technology associated with mobile payment applications allows us to make a transaction through the approach of the device to a terminal of mobile payments. The Apple Pay, Google Wallet, the SEQR and the MB WAY of Sibs are mobile payment services based on NFC, which enhance the growth of m-commerce scope.

In Portugal we may see companies like Starfoods, Lannidor and McDonald’s that have already adopted automatic payment terminals which support NFC technology.

The trend for the m-commerce in the coming years is the continuous growing, which will also reconfigure the retail sector and the consumers’ behaviours.