E-commerce and M-commerce

The Internet has evolved in many ways since its creation. Communication was its main purpose, but it has grown to include the ability to buy and sell just about anything online. Personal or business transactions that involve the transfer of information across the Internet is called electronic commerce or e-commerce (Network Solutions, n.d.). Usually this type of transaction occurs from a desktop computer. In recent years e-commerce has grown to include transactions being made from portable devices, such as smartphones or tablets (Bull, 2014). When transactions occur in this fashion they are known as mobile commerce or m-commerce. Because of the amount of people that own wireless devices, m-commerce is a growing trend. According to Bill Siwicki (2014), purchases that are made on phones and tablets will account for 27% of all online sales by 2018. That is a huge increase considering that as of 2013 m-commerce sales only comprised of 16% of all Internet transactions.

References:

Altmann, G. (n.d.). Online shop [Online image]. Retrieved December 21, 2014 from http://pixabay.com/get/607ca8054db8f2a67861/1419222589/shopping-cart-402756_1280.png?direct
Bull, D. (2014, February 28). What is mCommerce and what does it mean for your business? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.sage.co.uk/blog/index.php/2014/02/what-is-mcommerce-and-what-does-it-mean-for-your-business/

Network Solutions. (n.d.). What is Ecommerce? Retrieved from http://www.networksolutions.com/education/what-is-ecommerce/

Siwicki, B. (2014). Mobile commerce is critical to Internet retailing’s future. Retrieved from https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/04/21/mobile-commerce-critical-internet-retailings-future