M-Commerce and it’s future

1. What exactly is m commerce?

Ans:-

M-commerce (mobile commerce) is a tool buying and selling of goods and   services through wireless handheld devices such as cellular phone and personal digital assistants (PDA). Known as Advance-generation of e-commerce, m-commerce enables users to access the Internet without needing to find a place to plug in. The emerging technology behind m-commerce, which is based on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

1. What services could be provided using m commerce?

Ans:-Using m commerce one can serve

• Financial services, which includes mobile banking (when customers use their handheld devices to access their accounts and pay their bills) as well as brokerage services, in which stock quotes can be displayed and trading conducted from the same handheld device
• Telecommunications, in which service changes, bill payment and account reviews can all be conducted from the same handheld device
• Service/retail, as consumers are given the ability to place and pay for orders on-the-fly

Information services, which include the delivery of financial news, sports figures and traffic updates to a single mobile device

1. What are the advantages for retailers using m commerce as a medium of selling and marketing products?

Ans:-

As content delivery over wireless devices becomes faster, 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 in retail and product marketing becomes easy by giving some royal points and lucky draw etc as promotional scheme.

1. What are the payment methods used?

Ans:-

1.Net banking transfer E-commerce

2.Cash/cheque deposit

3.Pay via credit card/debit card/other card

1. How are these payment transactions made secure?

Ans:-

These transaction are made secure using Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) is a system for ensuring the security of financial transactions on the Internet. It was supported initially by MasterCard, Visa, Microsoft, Netscape, and others. With SET, a user is given an electronic wallet (digital certificate) and a transaction is conducted and verified using a combination of digital certificates and digital signatures among the purchaser, a merchant, and the purchaser’s bank in a way that ensures privacy and confidentiality. SET makes use of Netscape’s Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Microsoft’s Secure Transaction Technology (STT), and Terisa System’s Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP). SET uses some but not all aspects of a public key infrastructure (PKI).

Here’s how SET works:

The customer opens a Mastercard or Visa bank account. Any issuer of a credit card is some kind of bank.

(a)The customer receives a digital certificate. This electronic file functions as a credit card for online purchases or other transactions. It includes a public key with an expiration date. It has been through a digital switch to the bank to ensure its validity.

(b)Third-party merchants also receive certificates from the bank. These certificates include the merchant’s public key and the bank’s public key.

(c)The customer places an order over a Web page, by phone, or some other means.

(d)The customer’s browser receives and confirms from the merchant’s certificate  that the merchant is valid.

(e)The browser sends the order information. This message is encrypted with the merchant’s public key, the payment information, which is encrypted with the bank’s public key (which can’t be read by the merchant), and information that ensures the payment can only be used with this particular order.

(F)The merchant verifies the customer by checking the digital signature on the customer’s certificate. This may be done by referring the certificate to the bank or to a third-party verifier.

(g)The merchant sends the order message along to the bank. This includes the bank’s public key, the customer’s payment information (which the merchant can’t decode), and the merchant’s certificate.

(h)The bank verifies the merchant and the message. The bank uses the digital signature on the certificate with the message and verifies the payment part of the message.

(i)The bank digitally signs and sends authorization to the merchant, who can then fill the order.

1. Is there awareness about m-commerce in India? What has been the reason?

Ans:-

In India,The M-commerce sector is poised for growth in the Indian market owing to its intrinsic link to the booming mobile telephony sector in the region.
While M-Commerce is in its nascent stages, it is slated to boom over the next few years with growing sophistication and lower prices of mobile handsets.

A report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (http://www.iamai.in) titled “Mobile Value Added Services in India” projects that the mobile VAS sector (of which M-commerce is a part) is expected to grow from Rs.5,780Cr (June 2008) to RS 16,520Cr in June 2010 as a direct benefit of the growth in mobile telephony.

Currently, users of M-commerce perform a wide variety of transactions via mobile from paying for utility bill & movie tickets to shopping & holidays. While the uptake of mobile payments is still gathering pace, services that are more accessible and easier to use are finding favor.

Reason:-

One of the leading players in the sector, PayMate does not require GPRS or software downloads to use its service. As a result, all mobile handsets are eligible to use its SMS & IVR (Interactive Voice Recording) based services, making M-commerce an accessible alternative to cash or credit cards.

With the RBI’s support for M-banking and the release of its guidelines on mobile banking transactions (Sept-Oct 2008), banks have sped up their roll out of m-payment products with banks such as Standard Chartered, SBI and IDBI Bank launching their services in the early part of the year.

1. What has been the impact of m commerce on retail in India?

Ans:-

Retail sectors are getting good from mobile commerce. M-Commerce has proved a convenient medium for such sectors.

1. What does the future of m commerce hold in store?

Ans:-

In Service and Retail sectors and  also among the leading sectors, which have nurtured most from e- commerce. M-Commerce would be Vardan for them and will have major boom for these sectors. Several business dealings no matter how big or small are being finalized on the mobile phone. Customer would be able to book the order, can hire carrier/courier services and above all could also pay the dues related to it through mobile.

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