Introduction: M-Commerce, or mobile commerce, is a part of E-Commerce. M-Commerce basically means that use of wireless handheld devices for having the trade or we can simply say that M-Commerce is the wireless web technology i.e. the technology enabling users to access digital information from the internet using wireless mobile computing devices or simply wireless handheld devices. With the help of these wireless devices, we can buy and sell different products and services throughout the world whenever and wherever we want. These devices have abridged the distance between the consumers and suppliers. We can assume that M-Commerce is the child of E-Commerce with more technology.

M-Commerce is also known as next generation’s E-Commerce. Now, this statement clearly explains us the importance of M-Commerce and we get assured that M-Commerce is the blessing for everyone in this modern era where each and everyone needs fast and reliable access to internet round the clock (24 by 7).

Following are the some main kinds of Wireless Handheld Devices that are helpful for M-Commerce:

1. Palmtops/Notebooks: The most common example is Sun Ray.

2. Smart Phones (WAP): The most common example is Nokia 8390.

3. GPRS enabled Cell Phones: The most common example is Nokia 6233.

4. Video Game Consoles: The most common example is MS Xbox.

5. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): The most common example is Palm i705.

6. Wireless E-Mail Handheld Devices: The most common example is BlackBerry.

7. TV Internet Receivers: The most common example is MSNTV.

*(Beside these, there are number of other wireless handheld devices too, but these are the ones that are commonly used.)

Basically, M-Commerce is the part of E-Commerce but E-Commerce is limited only in those areas where we have internet connectivity. But M-Commerce, as we can see from its name, can be used anywhere. These wireless handheld devices can be connected to the internet through satellite and other means anywhere and at anytime. As it is stated that M-Commerce is mostly connected through the satellite, we can, therefore, also have video and audio conferencing by the help of the devices used for the M-Commerce. In E-Commerce, we too can have video and audio conferences but unlike that of M-Commerce, we do need to have the internet connectivity, which is not possible everywhere. This means that if we are at a place where we do not have access to the internet, so we can not do anything. M-Commerce has become blessing for the people in many ways. As content delivery over wireless devices becomes faster, reliable, more secure, and scalable, there is wide speculation that M-Commerce will surpass wire line E-Commerce as the method of choice for digital commerce transactions. Both Business to Business (B 2 B) and Business to Consumer (B 2 C) E-Commerce transactions can take place using M-Commerce technology.

Some major challenges of M-Commerce: Beside the fact that M-Commerce is a blessing for everyone in this generation, like all others things, there are some limitations and challenges to it as well. Although, these challenges and limitations can easily be changed into blessings, but still these are limitations for many of its users. These challenges are mentioned below:

1. The keyboards and screens are tiny and awkward for a new user to use. In fact, only a part of the screen is visible at a time on these devices.

2. Sometimes, the data transferring speeds on existing wireless networks is slow.

3. Each second waiting for data to download costs the customer money. Therefore, it is too much expensive to use.

4. Most wireless handheld devices have limited memory and power supply i.e. the memory is only extendable to a small extent while these devices are mostly used on battery which may need to be charged quite often.

These limitations and challenges may become a disgrace to the user but still these can not be avoided in any case and the user has to bare these any how.

Some Major Differences between E-Commerce & M-Commerce:

1. M-Commerce keeps us in touch with the world wirelessly by the help of satellites no matter where ever we are but E-Commerce usually does not do that. It normally needs to be connected to internet by the help of wires.

2. M-Commerce is always reliable and easy to access as compared to E-Commerce.

3. Wireless Handheld devices are easy to carry anywhere because of very low weight.

Conclusion: We can finally conclude that M-Commerce is basically a blessing for everyone. No matter, it too has some limitations and challenges, one can not deny from the importance of M-Commerce that has abridged the gaps between everyone especially for the trade and business.

I am the student of Institute of Business Administration(IBA), Karachi, Pakistan. I am currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I never wanted to pursue a carrier in CS but we are often in a situation where we have to do something we never want to do. This same happened with me and i have got stuck in this field. Although, I am facing many problems initially, I can now only cross out my fingers and hope for the best till i clear I succeed in this. Well, I am not a regular writer but I just wrote this article to be submitted as an assignment.

Within a decade, the importance of e-commerce sites has increased 10 times. The hectic life, busy schedule, restless lifestyle, lack of commodity management &decrease of unemployment have actually cast a spell behind this sudden hike. People get less time to go out and shop and window shopping? Who has the time? Everyone is running behind money and once coming back to the home exhausted in the evening, turn on the desktop, PC, Tablet or mobile and order something from the e-commerce store.

This is somehow the daily routine of all the busy people out there? Isn’t it?
Well, the luxurious deals that the e-marts promote to allure us in the festive seasons are quite lucrative and unavoidable. Moreover, the discounts that they provide us simply help us to pick up some awesome products at a very cheaper price and that really works! E-commerce has mobilized business truly and has given it a new aspect from both the ends of the customers and the sellers.

What is an e-commerce site?
E-commerce sites simply mean shopping through the internet. The history of online shopping dates back some two decades ago in 1991 when commercial use was allowed on the internet. At the beginning, the term was used only for the implementation of the electronic commercial dealings via EFT & EDI. Later the coinage was changed in the presently used meaning, i.e. the e-commerce websites or the websites that deal with the retailed products or services.

History In Brief
It all started like this. In early 2000, a huge number of business organizations in the United States and the Western Europe started representing their business on the internet. This led to a revolution and people started to buy goods directly online. Even that time the term e-commerce development company didn’t exist.

The internet was also new that time and dot-com collapse had damaged a lot in the international market. But one of the retailing companies ‘Brick & Mortar’ stood irresistibly and utilized the benefits of the electronic commerce stratagems. Once the concept was established, the types of e-commerce, such as the Business-to-Business model or B2B, Business-to-Consumer model or B2C and other models started approaching.

Revenue Generation
A recent survey has revealed that within three months, the global e-commerce sites generate over $1,50,000 monthly revenue and approximately $3,30,000 yearly revenue. It is estimated that after few years the amount will rise up to $1 million, which means it will increase some 230% within the gap of 3 years.

Some E-Commerce Sites
Within the time span of 1971 or 1972, the ARPANET was executed to organize a cannabis sale among the students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stanford and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. It was an online seminar and is thought to be the first e-commerce sale activity of the world.

In today’s world, with the huge success of the Amazon and Flipkart, e-commerce sites have started popping up like crazy. The importance and convenience of selling products and services through just one click have approached many business people positively. So, as the consequence, thousands of e-commerce websites are mushrooming up almost every day. But creating an e-commerce site requires a good management skill, marketing knowledge and development caliber that can optimize your site in the crowd of other such online shopping sites.

So what to take care of? Let’s have a look-

Web Hosting Service
Hosting your website on the internet properly will help your customers’ to access your website easily. Choosing a good hosting service is, thus, so important for launching your e-commerce site. The best web hosting service uplifts your website loading speed, makes it secure and deteriorates offline going rate. Before you choose a proper web hosting service, check out its availability, reliability, proper uptime and authenticity. Jimdo, Weebly are some of the web hosting services that have the drag and drop feature that facilitates hosting e-commerce websites.

Mediators or not?
The term ‘affiliate marketing’ depicts the presence of a mediator between the vendor and the customer. It prevents them to interact and transact directly with each other. The entire task is managed by the mediators for which they receive commissions for each transaction. But it’s up to you, whether you want to keep a mediator between or not? Many e-commerce sites work via a mediator and sometimes, the businessmen want to become the mediator as it generates more profit than a direct sale.
There are some sites that directly sell the products or services without any mediator. Sites like e-bay, OLX interact the customers and the sellers directly without any kind of mediators.

Call-To-Action
Transforming your promotions into conversion for generating ROI requires a call-to-action strategy. Call-to-action is not only the button that your end users click on their purchase. It depicts the benefits that your clients get from you or want to get from you. Thus, the discounts or offers that they get can also be the call-to-action strategy.The margin cut for the products or services depends on the discount or deduction you are providing for its each sale. The availability of the products and the proper categorization also attracts the attention of the consumers.

E-Commerce Platform
Hiring an experienced e-commerce development company for creating your own e-commerce site provides you benefits from all the aspects. But do you know, there are many online e-commerce platforms that provide you the benefits of customizing your e-commerce site? Well, there are many to learn about. Let’s have a look on them.

Shopify delivers online e-commerce software for stores and retail sales.

You can easily add e-commerce functionality in the Wix.com, a cloud-based web development platform that permits its customers to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites by using online drag and drop tools.

BigCommerce creates e-commerce software in order to enhance your business.

There are some technical platforms too.

WooCommerce is the best of them, which is basically an e-commerce plugin for WordPress.

Magento is one of them. This open-source e-commerce platform is written in PHP.

So, if you are looking for creating an e-commerce site of your own, ask few questions. Determine the products or service you want to sell, the group of customers you want to target and make a thorough survey of the market and then try the tips given above.

ou might want to create a website of your own, with a common example being a business or e-commerce website. E-commerce stands for electronic commerce, and refers to Internet sites that buy or sell products or services directly, including both physical products and services and virtual products and services. Exchanging financial data is also an important part of e-commerce in the context of online payments. E-mail and mobile phones are also often involved with e-commerce.

Aspects of E-commerce

E-commerce is made possible via electronic funds transfer, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, automated data collection systems, inventory management systems, supply chain management and Internet marketing. Most commercial entities are at least somewhat involved in e-commerce today.

E-commerce Applications

E-commerce transactions tend to be either business to business or business to consumer. There are many common e-commerce applications. These include supply chain and logistics document automation, enterprise content management, group or collective buying, domestic and international payment systems, instant messaging, newsgroups and automated online assistants.

More on E-commerce

Other aspects of e-commerce include online banking, online shopping, online order tracking, online office suites, teleconferencing, online tickets and shopping cart software. Some aspects of e-commerce tend to be regulated by governments. These often include online advertising, commercial e-mails and consumer privacy.

E-commerce Distribution

Some e-commerce practitioners exist only over the Internet, with an e-commerce website and perhaps other websites but not physical storefront or location. There are also more traditional commercial entities with storefronts or physical locations that also have a web presence that include an e-commerce website both for direct sales and for drawing more business to physical storefronts.

Making E-commerce Websites

Professional web designers can create e-commerce sites, but amateurs and laymen can use such applications as website builder tools, website design software and e-commerce software to do so as well. The best e-commerce sites are often simple and efficient in design, and it is generally not difficult to plan, build, launch and maintain an e-commerce website given the appropriate tools.

E-commerce and E-business

E-commerce is a subset of e-business, which is business conducted more efficiently with the use of information technologies. Internally within a business this can mean customer relationship management, human resources management, content management, enterprise resource planning, document management systems and communications systems such as digital audio, voice mail, e-mail, web conferencing and digital work flows.

Examples of E-commerce Products and Services

Software, electronic books and streaming media are some examples of online goods and services. E-commerce retail services can include travel, banking, food ordering, online pharmacy, online flower delivery and DVD-by-mail. Examples of mobile commerce include banking, ticketing and payment services. Some e-commerce marketplace services include advertising, auctions, online wallets, trading communities, price comparison services and social commerce.