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Smartphones only for phoning? A long outdated notion. Functions such as games and planning tools have additionally been integrated into everyday life – but what direction will future developments take?

As many as 59 percent of all smartphone owners have compared prices during the purchase process at least once before and around 48 percent of them have already made mobile purchases with their terminal device. Digital commerce experts at hmmh multimediahaus AG found this out in a survey. These results show that in future mobile terminal devices, particularly smartphones in combination with an Internet available everywhere, will play a key role in product sales – both in stationary and in online trade.

Thorben Fasching, Director Marketing & User Experience at hmmh: “The smartphone is not only a telephone, but also wallet, shopping aid, media player, route planner, game console and in future car and front door key as well. The Internet in combination with the triumphal advance of smartphones and touch-based computers offers the retail trade far-reaching opportunities for making the shopping experience even smarter and changing the shopping behavior of consumers on a long-term basis.”

In its white paper hmmh presents the facts of a mobile-networked consumer and dealer world and points out at the practical level the impacts on buying behavior on the basis of the fictive purchase of a TV set by a 30-year-old event manager. The strategy model analyzes external, secondary and primary influential variables that play a role in a consumer’s decision to buy. The digital commerce experts compare the advantages and disadvantages of various communication and sales channels, i.e. sales outlet, print, online and mobile, and give specific recommendations for their linkage to the multichannel strategy. hmmh also offers an eight-point plan for the way to “future commerce”. This includes an analysis of the needs, a clear strategy for active involvement in shaping the change, simplifying processes, offering exclusivity, networking sales outlets, binding customers as well as providing security and transparency.

The new guide “Future Commerce - buying and selling in a connected world” (free of charge) drawn up by hmmh shows what opportunities and challenges the technological development of mobile terminal devices brings about for multichannel dealers and retailers. The white paper was first presented at hmmh’s 7th E-Commerce Spot in Bremen on September 13. Anyone interested can obtain further information at hmmh’s booth at the dmexco trade fair (Hall 7, Booth B051) in Cologne from September 21 to 22, 2011.

The white paper “Future Commerce - buying and selling in a connected world” is available from hmmh on request.