M-commerce: the game-changer?

“M-commerce is the next revolution in the mobile market… once we see that happening, the mobile market will pick up,” according to Will King, head of product development at Unanimis.

Speaking on the Mobile Advertising panel, the final session at MediaTel Group’s Media Playground event last week, King said there are “already positive m-commerce stories but they’re really web stories on your phone, which is different”.

He sees m-commerce as the game-changer for mobile, though Shaun Jordan, sales Director at Blyk, said there are a lack of commercial solutions to support consumers’ demands and expectations. “M-commerce is a huge opportunity, people are on their mobile devices all the time and they’re using them to make purchases, but it is important that commercial solutions catch-up,” he said.

Jordan believes the problem is that clients and agencies are “in very different places… some are a long way off and don’t know where they want to go with mobile”.

“There is an opportunity for us to lead them, to demonstrate ROI can work better on mobile than via other advertising mediums they’re using. We need to prove to advertisers – show them a cost-effective solution and get the ball rolling,” he said.

Gary Cole, commercial director at O2 Media, said advertisers “want to get [mobile] but they don’t all get it – they just know that they should”. However, he said O2 have been “spending time with brands that are hungry to do great things with mobile this year”, and conluded that “m-commerce is the way forward”.

Chairing the session, Simon Andrews (founder of Addictive!) used the Debenhams app as a m-commerce success story – “it is already happening, they are selling loads,” he said.