The Importance of Mobile commerce and its Shopping cart software

Mobile commerce has recently emerged allowing for a completely new and innovative method to selling. Targeting and allowing consumers to place orders and transactions via WAP, this has opened the door to a whole new generation of buyer.

With the emergence of 3G technology, it is now easier than ever to purchase goods and services via mobile phones. Reserving concert tickets, booking flights or even the purchasing merchandise through your mobile phone are all now a reality of progress. Organisations must rethink their methods of consumer targeting due to social movements and a change in buyer mentality, this change in focus has resulted in an altering of thinking at many organisations, as they realise the importance of staying ahead of competition. Shopping cart software is now readily available and is considered a mainstay in every ecommerce orientated organisational structure. Offering customers an opportunity to add goods to their ecommerce cart instantly and purchasing it directly through the site.

Businesses adhere to two common shopping cart software categories. Licensed Software which is downloaded and installed directly on a web server, meaning the vendor owns the license, allows merchants to host it on any web server that meets requirements, and Hosted service which is never downloaded but supplied by a hosted service provider and paid for on a monthly or annual basis.

Conducting business through hand-held devices is rapidly increasing in popularity due to its wide potential reach and the increase in smart phones allowing for a huge marketing pool that is still very much in its youth. An ecommerce cart that is effective, allowing consumers to purchase directly on their phones has the potential to open up a company's opportunities tenfold. Characteristics such as ubiquity, distribution and flexibility promise excellent marketing potential to any organisation willing to go down that route, opening lucrative new markets for business.

The ease of being able to transact anywhere, at anytime even though promising and attractive, can sometimes be offset by unsatisfying customer experiences, therefore it is essential that organisations ensure their mobile commerce stores are equipped, and enjoy the same values adhered to on their sites. Effective manageable and integrated shopping cart software is as important to an m-commerce store as it is on its counterpart ecommerce site.

Therefore within the realm of m-commerce development, organisations must ensure they don't rush into the market without a plan for managing the mobile customer experience, an effective m-commerce site must equal its ecommerce counterpart, by providing the same customer experience and ecommerce cart or risk losing more business than they gain.