Whitepaper: Guidelines to-set-up-a-mobile-based-solution-for-ecommerce-shopping-carts
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This document provides guidelines for setting up a mobile-based ecommerce solution. It discusses the benefits of m-commerce over e-commerce, including pervasiveness, accessibility, localization, convenience, and personalization. It also outlines characteristics of an m-commerce site like mobility and reachability. The document then gives recommendations for developing a mobile-friendly site, such as using fluid layouts, avoiding flashy scripts, optimizing images, and keeping page sizes small. The overall goal is to make ecommerce sites accessible on mobile devices.
Whitepaper: Guidelines to-set-up-a-mobile-based-solution-for-ecommerce-shopping-carts
- 1. Guidelines To Set-up A Mobile-Based Solution for Ecommerce Shopping Carts 1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. E-Commerce Vs M-Commerce 4. Setting-Up An M-Commerce Based Site The Characteristics The Benefits The Need 5. How To Make A Mobile-Based Website Layout Coding Images Page Size & Page Links 6. Conclusion 7. References
- 2. 1. Abstract Over the past few years, mobile web development has taken powers as an obstinate industry. Mobile web usage has relatively increased with web designers and developers speeding over to build apps that favor the mobile web arena. Understanding the technological advancements in today's time, almost all nations (both wealthy and medium wealthy) have started to offer mobile broadband connections at a faster and cheaper data services. Only one in five individuals are willing to purchase PCs and laptops for web usage, while the rest of the four wish to go mobile for their web-related purposes. The rising advent of M-Commerce is going to be illustrated in this paper. We will also be discussing on how to set up a mobile based solution for eCommerce shopping carts. 2. Introduction Since many businesses used to be conducted in traditional marketplaces, the new innovative marketplace- the internet and eCommerce has provided a huge impact on the global business environment and it has changed the way of conducting business. Regarding the advantage of e-Commerce, firms keep looking for new technology and applications in order to be more competitive and successful. However, thanks to M-commerce a new trend has been set up, creating entirely new opportunities both for mobile devices and services, therewith providing the same capabilities, functionalities and mobility of eCommerce. M-Commerce got its emergence in 90's and is defined as the use of information technologies and communication technologies for the purpose of mobile integration of different value chains and business processes. In world today, there are over 5.9 billion mobile phone users and among these phone owners more than 20% (1.2 billion) use it exclusively for browsing Internet. This indicates the reason why mobile web browsing is predicted to become the next predominant Internet platform. Most of the consumer driven companies who have already experienced the significance of mobile platform have equipped their businesses with a mobile website. 3. Why M-Commerce Overtakes e-Commerce? Both M-commerce and e-Commerce can be compared under the following aspects. Pervasiveness: With the use of wireless device, the user is able to receive information and conduct transactions anywhere, anytime. Accessibility: Since it is mobile, users can be contacted virtually on-the-go. Businesses can also limit their accessibility to a particular user or time. Localization: With the emergence of location based apps, user will be able to receive the information in correspondence to the location. Convenience: Easy portability due to wireless device. Easy Connectivity: Instant and easy connectivity with the emergence of 3G and 4G networks. Personalization: It is all your personal device and hence localization and personalization can create new business opportunity to reach and attract customers. Security: Based on the end user device, a certain level of inherent security is being offered.
- 3. 4. Setting-Up an M-Commerce Solution An m-commerce based website has become more prominent and popular in today's eCommerce growth. Any site, until and unless optimized for mobile devices is not going to gain popularity. 4.1. The Characteristics One reason that people adopt mobile solutions is due to its unique characteristics: mobility and reach ability. Mobility capability of mobile solutions provides users with a free of time and location. Reach ability is directly related to mobility. As mobile device users can be reached instantly, so is the mobile websites. Other characteristics include ubiquity, user identity, location awareness and interactivity, security and instant connectivity. M-commerce solutions can satisfy the need for real time information and communication anywhere, regardless of the user's location. 4.2. The Benefits M-commerce will generate many benefits as e-Commerce. The benefits of m-commerce are reflected in two aspects: indirect and direct. Regarding indirect, m-commerce provides more competitive advantages than other fields. It brings rapid development and deployment of customized wireless applications with an organization's existing communication and data infrastructure. M-commerce can also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business activities by disturbing information to the workforce remote and by offering new ways in which to interact with customers. 4.3. The Need Any industry that either working online or not working online have their own benefits with m- commerce solution. As mentioned in above paragraphs, people are switching over to mobile devices each day and no one is going to find any other means of web usage other than mobile in the future years. Under such circumstances, sites that are completely built for desktop web are sure going to be thrown out. 5. How To Make A Mobile-Based Website One great factor that comes along with the website designing package is creating a mobile version of the website. Illustrated below are the key elements and aspects a web developer needs to follow in order to have a clean and professional mobile version of any website. Layout Layout enfolds the following different elements: Logo: Logo is one main thing in layout. Try to make the logo more attractive and appealing as that of your website. Ensure that the size of the logo doesn't exceed 2 Kbs. Navigation: Make sure that the links to main pages on the website are on the navigation bar. It is also quite important that the navigation menus and bars are organized up to the small QWERTY keypads. Content: Content is king with any website. It should be the same for both mobile and desktop users, which if mentioned specific will lose at least a single user.
- 4. Coding Coding is yet another significant factor in building mobile interface. Following things need to be considered while designing the coding of any mobile website. Valid code: The code must be 100% valid and proper because most of the mobile browsers are not as good as their PC counterparts and hence it should be made clear that it is valid. Fluid Layouts: As there are so many mobile devices for web browsing, it is quite difficult to discover how the layout looks on all mobile browsers. With fluid layouts this concern can be rectified, since these are layouts which automatically adjust to the screen sizes. In order to accomplish this, avoid setting widths in pixels and use percentages instead. Avoid Fancy Scripts: Say 'no' to Javascript, Flash or any other similar fancy scripts that are available over there. As most of the mobile devices do not interpret these scripts, it is really a worse decision to use them. Enough Ads: Mobile sites are not desktop sites. Only a 3 to 4 inches of a site is visible on mobile screens and within that minute size if you are filling up with ads, it is sure that the site goes dirty. For a complete site focusing on user experience, it is the 'less or no' ad factor that is going to make a stand. Images Images and graphics are pretty important until and unless they are used as little as possible. Most mobile devices take long to load heavy images. Hence, before adding such images, first compress them and then add in order to avoid zooming. Also, ensure that the images you wish to put on your mobile website are in .jpeg or .gif or .png format. Page Size & Page Links While assigning a style for mobile website, it is very important to make it simple and small. The maximum page size for a mobile website needs to be 20 Kb or even less than 10 Kb. Users usually get charged per Kb usage of mobile web data. Likewise, a good mobile website design needs to provide back buttons and links. Also make sure that all the pages are linked to other pages. 6. Conclusion In this paper, we discussed about the characteristics and guidelines to set up a mobile based solution (mobile website & iPhone, Android & Windows Mobile Application Development) for eCommerce business needs. M-Commerce is really an interesting and very recent addition to the way that modern business enterprises conduct business. It has become a new frontier for eCommerce and has brought many business opportunities because of its unique characteristics and positive impact in many business sectors. Firms are gaining substantial benefits from m-commerce in many business areas such as manufacturing, retailing, marketing and finance. Mobile websites are never more a passing cloud, since they have already proved their necessity in every field. At Contus, we are well aware of the need of mobile based solutions in today’s time and have released a brand new mobile commerce application to make your sites roll on mobiles. Our ready-made application will allow you to optimize your website to various mobile devices. Checkout www.mobecommerce.net for further details. 7. References
- 5. For a better understanding of any technical terms or acronyms mentioned in this White Paper visit: http://www.contus.com Mobile Commerce, Mobile Banking - The Emerging Paradigm (RBI docs, 2009) Mobile Commerce: Opportunities and Challenges (GS1 Mobile Com, February 2008) MOBILE COMMERCE : The Future Is Here (3D Cart.com, 2010) How to Create a Mobile Version of your Website (1 st Web Designer, Abhishek, 2010, http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/tutorials/mobile-version-website/) How To Build A Mobile Website (Jon Raasch, November 3rd, 2010, http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/03/how-to-build-a-mobile-website/) M-Commerce – The Complete Picture (Matt Swan, Affiliatewindow.com)