Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) refers to any transactions conducted through a variety of mobile devices over a wireless telecommunication. M-commerce was initially expected to experience a substantial growth for rapid proliferation of mobile device adoption and the obvious advantages of accessibility of service anywhere, anytime.
However, most m-commerce applications, excepts for very few personal applications like the ring tone or caller-tunes have failed. Some factors which have hindered consumer’s usage of mobile commerce applications include cost of access, credit card security, difficult navigation and low access speed.
Following the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), two key determinants of technology adoption are perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. According to this model, both perceived usefulness and ease of use influence the attitude of individuals towards the use of technology, while attitude and perceived usefulness of the technology predict the individual’s behavior to use the technology. Since m-commerce is a new way of doing business and promises delivering the business in new way the TAM could be useful in predicting user’s intention to adopt new services and applications. Prior studies have extended TAM with constructs such as perceived playfulness, perceived enjoyment and others.
Based on research, it has been found out that subjective norms and perceived behavioral control impact perceived ease of use and intention to adopt m-commerce which implies that marketing strategist seek to produce peer impact rather than rather than external impact.An emphasis on friends who have adopted m-commerce would be better than individuals with high level of personal innovation. The practitioners can also prioritize and allocate resources accordingly. Moreover, m-commerce service providers should emphasize on differentiation to make application more useful and easier to use than their competitors.
Businesses are yet to realize the fortunes hidden in m-commerce. It is a buried goldmine awaiting exploitation, provided the consumer requirements could be properly understood. Given this background, what products would you have launched with m-commerce?