Benefits & Limitaions of M-Commerce

Mobiles are being used more and more on daily basis and today it is not merely used to make or receive a call. Mobile companies are coming up with new features for their smart phones, which offer consumer ease, flexibility and security at the same time. The ease of availability and faster speed has made M-commerce more popular now days. The Web design and development companies have also optimized the websites, such that it can be viewed correctly on mobile devices. M-commerce is the integration of wireless networks accessed through handheld devices and Internet.

The benefits of Internet and E-commerce are offered by M-commerce also.

Some of the advantages of M-commerce as listed.

• It provides convenience to the user.
• In just few clicks on the mobile device, the user can do shopping, banking and download media files while on the move.
• Mobile device enables the user to be contacted at virtually anytime and anywhere.
• Reduces transaction cost.
• Reduces the time to order. The user does not need to be on the PC or laptop to order.
• Streamline business processes.
• Provides global reach.
• Conduct business 24*7.
• Flexibility of accessing the information through any mobile devices.
• Payment can be done using the mobile devices itself just the same way as it is done on personal computer.
• Useful to deliver time critical and emergency information.
• Easily identifies the physical location of the handheld device. The emergence of location based applications enable the user to receive relevant information.
• Customized alerts can be easily received on the mobile device.
• Instant connectivity and availability of faster 3G services has made M-commerce more popular these days.
• Timely information can reach the user.
• The information like flight or train schedule, delay or cancellation can be given to the user on his mobile device on real time basis.

Limitations of M-commerce

Though the list of advantages of M-commerce is large it has a number of limitations.

Some of the limitations of M-commerce are listed below:

• The handheld devices commonly used today offer a limited screen size. This further limits the types of file and data transfer. At times it is difficult to display videos.
• User interface is less convenient when compared to personal computers.
• Mobile devices have limited computing power, memory and storage capacity.
• It operates over wireless networks which are less secured as compared to wired network.
• It offers a limited bandwidth.
• High cost of establishing mobile and wireless broadband infrastructure.