What Is Mobile Commerce? How Does M-commerce Work?

If you’re here, chances are you’re one of those curious bunches who want to know more about what this emerging trend really is, what its future holds, and how you can best take advantage of it. Well, say no more as in this article, we’ll cover everything you’d ever need to know about mobile Commerce.

Related articles:

• Insights from Trending Mobile eCommerce Statistics for 2025
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• 5 Mobile Commerce Metrics to Track and Improve in 2025

What is Mobile Commerce?

Mobile commerce, commonly referred to as mCommerce, is the process of conducting commercial transactions through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It encompasses a wide range of activities, including shopping, banking, and making payments, all facilitated by wireless networks and mobile applications.

 Kevin Duffey – the father of the term put it:

A retail outlet in your best customer’s pocket.

Types of mobile Commerce services

While the term mCommerce often refers to online transactions done via mobile devices, it’s so much more than that. Since its first appearance, mCommerce has expanded the mobile experience to so much more than just “buying things on mobile”. As a matter of fact, it’s been the sole reason for the emergences of brand-new industries and services such as:

• Mobile Shopping: Consumers browse and purchase products through mobile-friendly websites or mobile shopping apps.
• Mobile Banking: Users manage their financial accounts and conduct transactions via banking apps.
• Mobile Payments: Solutions like digital wallets (e.g., Apple Pay, PayPal) enable contactless payments in stores or online.
• Mobile Ticketing: Tickets for events and travel can be purchased and stored on mobile devices for easy access.
• Loyalty Programs: Many businesses offer discounts and rewards through mobile apps to enhance customer engagement.

>> See more: 26+ Features of Mobile Shop 2025 (Core To Advanced)

Examples of mobile commerce

Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, encompasses a variety of transactions and services conducted via mobile devices. Here are some notable examples:

Retail App examples

• Amazon: The Amazon app allows for seamless shopping with features like one-click purchasing and personalized recommendations, making it a leader in mobile commerce.
• SHEIN: This fashion retailer’s app offers a user-friendly interface, access to the full collection, and promotional discounts, enhancing the mobile shopping experience.
• Etsy: Known for handmade and vintage items, Etsy’s app supports easy browsing and secure payments, catering to a large mobile user base.

>> You may also like: Top 7 eCommerce Apps for Your Inspiration in 2025

Food and Beverage app examples

• Starbucks: The Starbucks app enables customers to order and pay for drinks ahead of time, allowing them to skip lines at stores. Users can customize orders directly from their smartphones.
• Uber Eats: This food delivery service allows users to order meals from local restaurants through its mobile app, showcasing convenience in food delivery.

Payment Solutions

• Apple Pay and Google Pay: These digital wallets facilitate quick and secure payments both online and in physical stores, streamlining the payment process for users.
• Venmo: A peer-to-peer payment app that allows users to send money easily for various purposes, such as splitting bills or making purchases.

Social Commerce

• Instagram Shopping: Brands like Allbirds utilize Instagram to showcase products directly within the app, enabling users to purchase items without leaving the platform.
• TikTok shop: Launched in the United States in 2023, TikTok shop combines social media engagement with shopping, enabling brands and creators to connect with customers through various interactive formats.

Loyalty Programs 

Many retailers offer mobile coupons and loyalty rewards through their apps. For example, brands like Lush provide discounts and special offers to enhance customer engagement through mobile platforms.

>> See more: 7 Best Loyalty Program Apps To Boost Customer Retention

How does mobile commerce work?

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) operates by enabling consumers to conduct transactions using their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. Here’s an overview of how mobile commerce works in 7 steps:

1. Mobile Platforms Shopping: Users shop via mobile apps or mobile-optimized websites designed for easy navigation.
2. Product Discovery: Users can search for products or browse categories, often receiving personalized recommendations based on their behavior.
3. Shopping Cart and Checkout: Users add items to a virtual cart and proceed to checkout by adding various payment methods (credit/debit cards, digital wallets, COD,…)
4. Location-Based Services:Retailers use GPS to provide targeted offers and alerts when customers are nearby.
5. Security Measures: M-commerce platforms implement encryption and biometric authentication to protect user data during transactions.
6. Order Fulfillment and Tracking: Customers receive order confirmations and can track their purchases through the app or website.
7. Post-Purchase Engagement: Retailers engage customers with mobile marketing for eCommerce or push notifications about new products and exclusive offers.

mCommerce and eCommerce

Fundamentally, however, they’re still different, with eCommerce means Internet Commerce—Commerce over the Internet. To put it in perspective, eCommerce is like a spectrum of means for commercial transactions over the Internet and mCommerce an (increasingly) large part of which. Oftentimes, these two terms overlap because of just how progressive the mCommerce scene has become. (Find detailed information in our comprehensive article: Key Differences Between E-commerce and M-commerce)

This is a table summarizing the key differences between mCommerce and eCommerce:

Advantages of mobile commerce

With an impressive year-on-year growth of $710 billion by 2025, mCommerce is expected to be the main channel of shopping in the future. Here are the advantages of mobile-first eCommerce for businesses and consumers:

• Convenience: Compared to its early days, mobile devices are getting increasingly easier to fit into your pocket and more multi-purpose than ever. With just a few simple clicks on mobile devices, customers can do shopping, banking, downloading media files, manage their businesses, and more.

• Localization: Mobile commerce allows brands to reach consumers at the right time, whether they’re browsing for an item in the evening or shopping in a store during a lunch break. Geotracking technology and programmatic advertising help retailers connect with these consumers in those moments before a purchase decision, increasing the likelihood that the purchase will be completed.

• Ubiquity: Simply with a device that’s connected to the internet, users can get any information anywhere with almost no extra cost involved. It is the fundamental factor that separates mCommerce from traditional brick-and-mortar stores, especially at a time when two-thirds of adults own a smartphone like today.

• Payment Options: Mobile Commerce opens a whole new variety of payment options for customers to choose from. Simply by implementing payment methods characteristic of mCommerce such as barcode scanners, businesses can save the monthly costs which often accompanied by credit card terminals.

>> Read more: Benefits And Limitations Of M-Commerce Over eCommerce

What’s on the horizon for mCommerce?

Oh, the future of mCommerce is bright. Like sunglass-required bright. As of now, there are plenty of promising technologies that are still in limited use but will revolutionize your shopping experience when it’s the norm. Here are a few that come to mind:

1. Image Search

Powered by Artificial Intelligence, image search is set to revolutionize your shopping experience by making everything easier for you. With image search, you can now search part of an image, search with your cameras, with augmented reality applications or built-in image search features.

>> See more: AI and Machine Learning in eCommerce: Timeline, Benefits and Best Examples

2. Virtual Reality Stores 

Should VR headsets be a part of mCommerce? The answer varies—but it’s somewhere between “Yes” and “Maybe”.

Not very long now, your VR headset will be your companion wherever you go, since the experience that VR Stores bring is set to be transformative, futuristic and unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

3. Voice Shopping

With the rise of intelligent assistants such as Siri or Alexa, you can be assured that the way people use voice searches is set to change as the technology matures. Compared to years ago, people are now getting increasingly familiar with voice searches, to the point of over 40% of US adults now use voice search once a day. 

Those are impressive numbers, and even more so impressive is the fact that, to a large majority of people, voice-activated speakers are now considered a part of their daily life and is just as important as a smartphone:

Back to the previously mentioned disadvantage of mCommerce, can we expect voice search to replace the human touch that mCommerce (and eCommerce in general) is lacking? The answer is very likely, as users of voice search are already reporting a high sense of comfortability found in intelligence assistants. For now, let’s keep our fingers crossed that the future will turn out to be better?

Wrapping words

As a company that provides complete mobile solutions for Shopify store owners, we’d love to see how the current mCommerce trend takes shape and transform for the better. Our guess—and this is made with our professional opinion in mind—is that the future isn’t purely mCommerce, as the shopping experience in today’s world doesn’t always begin and end with the mobile device.

If anything, the future seems to call for an omnichannel shopping experience, which means that users might begin their customer journey on their desktop/laptop but end on their smartphone.

And if omnichannel is the key to the retail future, it seems that one thing you can’t ignore is the rise of Progressive Web Apps. With headless commerce becoming the norm, it’s unsurprising to see brands taking advantage of the PWA approach which has been demonstrated time and time again to boost revenue and increase time-per-session.

If you happen to be a Shopify store owner looking for a way to expand your brand’s presence, well, you’re in luck, because here at SimiCart, we have just the right solution for you.

> > Explore Simicart Shopify Mobile App Builder!