Motorola Inc., Domino's Pizza and Verizon Wireless today announced that they are participating in one of the first market trials of mobile commerce.
The trial will enable all three companies to assess consumer adoption and usage of "mobile commerce," also known as mobile shopping or m-commerce. M-commerce may change the way consumers shop by providing the ability to order goods and services quickly, easily and completely wirelessly via the Internet using a wireless device.
Consumers are increasingly using handheld devices to shop online. According to the Gartner Group Inc, three percent of all online transactions will be made over Web-enabled handsets this year, compared with 89 percent over personal computers and eight percent over TV set-top boxes. Gartner predicts that in 2005, 27 percent of online transactions will be made over mobile, Web-connected devices, such as cell phones and handheld organizers.
Motorola has teamed up with Domino's Pizza and Verizon Wireless to test the consumer market for this new method of shopping via the Internet. The two-month "Pizzacast" trial is currently taking place in Las Vegas, with consumers ordering pizzas using their wireless phones. Via Web-based preferences, trial participants can select their favorite pizza, toppings, side orders, beverages, methods of payment and delivery addresses using the Verizon Wireless Mobile Web(SM)--giving them the freedom to order quickly, with only a few clicks on a wireless phone.
During the trial, participants are benefiting from an intuitive Mobile Web application that learns their purchasing preferences and, in turn, provides customized, concierge-like service that is easy to access. Specifically, consumers are using the mobile Internet to order pizza for either pick-up or delivery. The significance of the Pizzacast trial is tied to the companies' ability to begin building an "m-commerce engine" and the ability to gain insight into what is needed to make m-commerce a time-saving and compelling experience for consumers in the future.
To build this particular m-commerce engine, the companies are exploring a portfolio of mobile commerce solutions including: point-of-sale and point-of-purchase m-commerce applications; a proprietary database management system; and an order profiling system.
"Understanding how our pizza-eating customers will use new communication channels and making our brand available through them is our goal," added Jack Scheible, senior director of Customer Relationship Management at Domino's Pizza. "The test with Pizzacast and Verizon is a pivotal step towards understanding and accommodating our customers' needs."
"We are very pleased with progress of the trial," said Bohdan Pyskir, general manager of Motorola's "Pizzacast" Mobile Shopping Core Solution Center. "We are looking forward to learning directly from consumers about how mobile shopping can make life easier and more fun," Pyskir said. "M-commerce holds great promise for consumers in the future. It will provide consumers with the ability to purchase goods and services quickly and efficiently while they are mobile."
The Future of M-commerce Is Bright
It is expected that once m-commerce is standard in the wireless world, consumers will have the ability to build a variety of profiles with brick-and-mortar merchants, enabling them to order goods and services effortlessly while on the go. Other wireless technologies associated with future wireless networks also will enhance the m-commerce experience, providing consumers with an "always-on" connection to the mobile Internet and the ability to download information at significantly higher speeds with 2.5G wireless systems and third-generation wireless systems.
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