M-Commerce which is short for mobile commerce is a new web platform that has long been used in much of Europe and Asia, but is only recently beginning to gain ground in the United States and Canada. With the emergence of 3G networks, smartphones, and other technologically advanced handheld devices, it's now becoming increasingly popular to shop with a mobile. There are already millions of people using phones with internet access and they are beginning to complete their normal online activities on these portable devices. The amount of people who are replacing old fashioned online shopping and purchasing with the on the go mobile alternative is increasing every day. Eventually the day will come when almost all transactions are accomplished with mobile devices.

Mobile commerce became somewhat mainstream with the introduction of ringtones, mobile applications and games. Users can search for their favorite songs, new applications that are compatible with their phone and games that can be played with their handheld devices. They can then buy these things directly with their mobile device and download it right after the transaction goes through. Now mcommerce is starting to be much more popular and people are starting to purchase tangible products in addition to products that can be downloaded. Mobile online shopping is becoming more reliable and convenient than ever before. As a matter of fact, a lot of people go into retail stores, find an item they want, take out their phone and do a search for the exact same product online for price comparisons. If the online price of the item is lower than the one from the retail store, there's a good chance that the person will buy the product immediately online with their mobile phone. This type of impulse purchase is a form of instant gratification for the customer and great for your business.

If you are a business owner on the internet, you may think that your online store is already fully mobile compatible. You would be wrong, as a matter of fact you will have to create an entirely separate version of your whole website for the purpose of accommodating the smaller sized screen. If you would like your customer to find your store using their phone and make a purchase, you must make sure they have a great shopping experience. With a normal website, navigating through web pages to view the full size images of products and their descriptions on a mobile device is a very frustrating experience. The user not only has to scroll up and down, but also from left to right in order to catch all the details. On top of that, going through each step of the checkout process and actually finishing the transaction can be an even bigger pain in the you know what. If you were to optimize your e-commerce store to take advantage of mobile commerce, it would not only fit your product images and descriptions to the screen, but also make your checkout process seamless. It doesn't matter if you are surfing the web on your desktop or with your mobile device, it is easily detectable which version of your online store need to be displayed, allowing both versions to work in conjunction with one another.

There are several advantages that come with making your online presence fully mobile compatible. There are so many clever ways to create a marketing campaign geared towards your mobile users. It's easy to think of some innovative and creative ideas to target people with mobile phones. If you are able to have fun with it and let your potential customers have fun with it too, your marketing campaign has the ability to become a viral hit. A few easy m-commerce marketing ideas include providing coupons exclusively for mobile users, announcing one time only sales on products making it virtually impossible for people to resist buying on impulse, and also creating contests or giveaways for people via text. There are so many different ways to use the technology to increase your customer base.

Your key takeaway should be to act now! Do not wait until your competition has already caught on to jump on the m-commerce bandwagon. Be one of the first movers and shakers to experience this enormous opportunity. If you develop your business in the right way, it can result in years of continued growth and sustainability over everyone else.

Do you want seamless integration of your ecommerce and mobile e-commerce? What you need is a reliable ecommerce solution that optimizes every aspect of your ecommerce site for mobile phones and handhelds, making it easy for anyone to purchase from you while on the go.