An M-Commerce solution to solve a particular business problem. The team will choose a current organization or create your own to complete this project.
For this project, you will work with a collaborative team to propose an M-Commerce solution to solve a particular business problem. The team will choose a current organization or create your own to complete this project. Your team will research, analyze, define, and propose a technology-based business solution. The end product will be both a paper and a presentation that describes the problem and the business solution.
Executive Summary
This White Paper seeks to demonstrate the reality of mobile commerce for businesses and consumers
alike and the need for GS1 to contribute in a neutral way to establish relevant global standards for the
benefit of all stakeholders. It ties together three basic trends:
1 Consumers are changing their behaviour and expectations with regard to shopping and brand loyalty
• Mobile phones and the web are now allowing people to be more connected than ever
– messages from other consumers are often more valued and trusted than messages from
companies.
• Consumers respond positively to businesses that take the time to understand their needs and
offer excellent customer service. Mobile technology allows businesses to become more serviceoriented in what they do and to tailor what they provide to better meet the needs of individual consumers.
2 Businesses are changing the way they do business
• Businesses are looking for innovative ways to enter into a relationship with consumers.
Technology is allowing a two-way dialogue between brand owners and consumers to be real.
• Businesses are also recognising the value of collaborating more closely with business partners and competitors. Sharing information about consumer behaviour and supply chain processes is of critical importance.
• Businesses are taking advantage of advances in technology to work faster, leaner and more intelligently. Small businesses are no longer at a disadvantage since complex business applications are available via the internet at low cost.
3 Mobile phones are enabling these changes to happen on a global scale
• There are over 3 billion mobile phones worldwide. This means that over 40% of the world’s population carries a mobile phone, far more than use a computer or have access to the internet.
In many developed countries, mobile phone penetration is above 90% and developing countries are catching up fast.
• Closer, more personalised relationships between businesses and consumers are possible via mobile phones.
• Emerging applications and services that add value to physical products and brands and go beyond limits previously imposed (such as extended packaging) already exist today on mobile phones.
• Existing business issues (such as inefficient couponing) can be resolved effectively using mobile technology.
• Convergence of different technologies on single devices that are available anywhere and anytime is allowing existing technologies (such as the internet) to evolve and extend their reach even further.Six business applications have been identified as particularly relevant in the supply and demand chain.
• Extended packaging: consumers access additional information about products through their mobile phone.
• Content purchase and delivery: digital products such as videos, games and music can be trialled and sold via mobile phones.
• Mobile coupons: mobile phones are used both to capture and redeem coupons and discounts.
• Authentication: mobile phones are used to check whether or not a product is genuine.
• Re-ordering: Mobile phones are used to reorder products with orders sent to the supplier in a standard format.
• Mobile self-scanning: consumers in supermarkets use their mobile phone (rather than a device
supplied by the supermarket) to scan products as they do their shopping.
These opportunities and what mobile commerce will look like in the future depend on the creation of
an open and neutral infrastructure trusted by both businesses and consumers to enable a fast and easy
adoption of the technology, to reduce the cost of the initial investment for businesses and to facilitate
innovation and to allow interoperability between all technology components across applications and
geographical locations.
The following recommendations are considered as foundational to the growth of mobile commerce:
1. Use GS1 keys to identify objects
2. Encode GS1 keys in bar codes and RFID tags
3. Use existing bar codes on products as an entry point for product information
4. Mobile phones should be able to read GS1 standard 1D and 2D bar codes out of the box
5. Mobile phones should be able to read Electric Product Code RFID tags on products
6. When building systems to support mobile technologies, companies should use existing infrastructure to link to product information and added value services.
7. Focus on six business applications presented in this white paper
8. Ensure that consumers receive clear information
9. Ensure that legal aspects are well-researched