Guest Column: M-Commerce is the new face of E-commerce

M-Commerce is witnessing a phenomenal growth. Technological advances in the digital World have given the hand-held devices breakthrough capabilities and computing competency. Statistically, India boasts of a humongous figure of 462 million internet users which is more than the entire population of the United States and out of which, 79% of the traffic is derived from mobiles. This surely is eye opening and impressive. There is a constant hike in mobile consumption due to big push by the telecom service providers as well as the smart phone companies. These companies are focusing on increasing the mobile penetration by offering mobile phones at affordable prices and telecom companies are providing unlimited internet usage for free or at an extremely low cost. 

If we look at the statistics, 83% of the total numbers of smartphone users in India are shopping online through their mobile devices. Even though it is a prominent figure, it doesn’t come as a surprise because today, mobile has become extremely convenient to carry and is user friendly. Pocket friendly smart phones which are well equipped with latest features have become are cheap and easier to own. Besides this, application usage is increasing at a heavy pace. This can be seen in the report by Dazeinfo, which states, 94% of Indians prefer mobile apps to mobile websites. The focus on app building by the various ecommerce brands is commendable as it has hugely impacted the ecommerce market as well as the traditional industries.

Traditional industries like banks, hotels, tourism have witnessed a tremendous rise in mobile usage with around 30 million people subscribing to mobile banking services. The introduction of payment gateways & mobile wallets have been helpful and made the transaction process easier and safer. Booking tickets online, sending or receiving money, paying bills can now happen in the blink of an eye. The future is certainly headed towards 100% cashless transactions conducted through mobile devices.

While talking of the current scenario, the online food industry cannot be left far behind. With the online food giants like Zomato, Swiggy, Foodpanda, it is certainly accelerating at a top speed. As per the reports by Gadgets now, over 85% of Indians order food online in India with majority of the orders coming from mobile phones.

The e-retail market is also experiencing a surge with each passing year. As per IIFL, over 69 million consumers shopped online in 2016 and if the ASSOCHAM- Resurgent India study is to be believed it will hit the mark of 100 million users by end of 2017. The ecommerce portals are attracting the consumers with offers and discounts leading to rise in app download and shift of maximum traffic to their respective apps.

All these factors clearly state that M-commerce is the new face of ecommerce with future seeming extremely bright and beneficial and statistics sky rocketing beyond 100%.

(Sahil Chopra is the founder of iCubesWire, a digital marketing solutions company which help brands acquire and retain clients through web, mobile, email, Videos, Rich Media and so on.)