July 16, 2009

Success In Mobile Commerce Means Asking The Right Questions Now

an introduction by Sucharita Mulpuru

Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

Forrester recently adapted its methodology for creating a successful social strategy — based on understanding people, objectives, strategy, and technology (POST) — to the mobile strategy space. While Forrester believes mobile commerce is still nascent, savvy eBusiness and channel strategy professionals should view increased adoption of smartphones — essentially, cell phones or handsets with advanced feature sets and QWERTY keyboards — as a potential opportunity for new channel development and should plan accordingly. Retailers should start outlining the right strategy for themselves now — by continuing to ask the right questions as the space develops. Specifically, retailers need to know who their customers are and how they use their cell phones. They should also determine what they hope to achieve through mobile commerce as well as how to reach their customers and through what technologies. Lastly, they must tackle security concerns head on.