M-Commerce: Are You Ready for the Trillion Dollar Opportunity?
By Dan Zheng, Founder, CEO of EggDropapp.com
Mobile local commerce is exploding. Several new companies have entered the mobile market, while powerhouses such as Ebay have made the jump from traditional websites to mobile. In the next 5 years, m-commerce is expected to see continued growth becoming a trillion-dollar industry.
Mobile commerce is no longer just about price checks and product reviews; it’s about facilitating end-to-end transactions anywhere, anytime. From lead/demand generation to payment, we now have all of the building blocks.
The Keys to Success
To be successful in mobile commerce, it’s essential to recognize mobile as a new computing paradigm and a disruptive force that fundamentally changes every aspect of our lives, including commerce. Having a mobile website or an iPhone/Android app is not enough. Companies need to stand out from the competition and can do so by focusing on three key areas: experience, speed and people.
Superior User Experience
With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, users are now demanding and expecting a better experience on mobile. With touch interface, sensors (GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope), mobile allows companies to come up with an elegant and intuitive user experience. New and emerging technologies such as NFC, speed-to-text and image recognition look to take the user experience to the next level.
Fast and Instantaneous
Mobile commerce is about allowing buyers and sellers to connect in real time. Consumers are expecting immediate answers whether it’s doing a Google search on their mobile phones or checking the price of an item at the local supermarket using a barcode scanning app. Companies need to deliver what users are looking for quickly.
Connecting People
Unlike the PC/Internet revolution in the 90’s, mobile brings people closer. It bridges the gap between online and offline. Check-in apps such as Foursquare drive foot traffic to local businesses and help to build relationships with their customers. Shopkick has taken that a step further by awarding users for simply walking into stores, scanning barcodes with their phones and making purchases.On the local marketplace front, being able to buy and sell locally invites people to get to know their neighbors.
The Future is Now
Mobile local commerce is still in its infancy, but its foundation is solid. Millions of iPhones and Androids purchased this year alone suggest the Mobile Generation is upon us. Where it goes from here is in the hands of companies like EggDrop and how well we deliver a faster, superior user experience that continues to connect people. The trillion-dollar opportunity has arrived and the sky’s the limit.
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Dan Zheng is the CEO and co-founder of EggDrop, a mobile marketplace app matching local buyers and sellers. Dan has 10-plus years of experience in technology, handling everything from engineering to product management and now business development. Dan was an early employee at Google, he worked on Search Appliance, AdSense, Google Video, Google China, and Android, receiving a pair of Founders Awards. Dan received his BSE degree in Computer Science from Princeton University.
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