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As a matter of fact, all indicators point up. Mobile online use, and along with it the purchases of mobile users via their smartphones, has been doubling and even tripling for years. Studies forecast growing significance for m-commerce. Nearly 60 percent of smartphone users made at least one purchase with the help of their smartphone last year, a quarter of those surveyed went to the mobile checkout three times or more. New technologies, such as QR code scanning, Augmented Reality and Google’s offering “Googles”, amplify the user experience for mobile users and strengthen the link between stationary stores and online commerce.

Nevertheless, German m-commerce is developing at a sluggish pace. This is mainly due to the shop operators. Only a fourth of the Web shops in Germany have a mobile online presence and there are even fewer special mobile shops or shopping apps – merely eight of the 20 German online dealers with the strongest sales offer shopping apps.

“Generally German companies rarely tend to integrate innovative technologies into their business processes at an early stage,”says Thorben Fasching (hmmh). In addition, the share currently accounted for by m-commerce is tiny, despite strong growth – an investment in a mobile shopping platform therefore does not pay off right away. “If you solely take into account the expected sales, it doesn’t make sense to make the necessary investments in this segment given the current use of mobile commerce,” Fasching concedes. “However, the development of e-commerce has already shown that it’s extremely important to gain experience in the newly emerging sectors so as to be able to profit from this at a later time.”

m-commerce in Germany is thus still very much in its infancy. Aside from the restraint of Germans, however, there are other reasons for the sluggish development of m-commerce: “There is still a lack of standardized solutions,” explains Thorben Fasching from hmmh. “Even though Paypal now offers solutions for mobile operating systems, they have not been fully perfected yet.”

By giving consideration to these technical innovations, shop operators only take the first step – the crux, however, is to take advantage of the opportunities of the mobile channel and offer customers added value.

“There are undreamed-of opportunities in this field,” raves Fasching. “For instance, you can tailor individual offers even more selectively by means of location based services. Adequate preparation of the content in connection with hardware options like swipe, pinch to zoom or orientation change is the key for a successful m-commerce presence.”

*Source: Internet World Business 22/11