Commentary

Elvis Anniversary & the Mobile App

When the airlines first created their mobile apps, ticket purchasing wasn’t high on the list of offerings.

Actually, it wasn’t on the list of offerings at all.

That’s sort of the story of early mobile commerce.

A business decides to create an app, figures out the creative, finds an execution team inside or outside its doors and away it goes.

Just like the early Web wasn’t about selling things online, neither were early apps.

But over time, it dawned on many that there was significant money in mobile transactions.

The reality is that once people started regularly using a particular app, using it for commerce would be very natural. (Starbucks, anyone?)

During Elvis Week in early August, there are concerts, dances and a candlelight vigil at Graceland, the former home of the rock and roll legend.

Of course, there’s now an app for that.

But in addition to all the information provided in the app, listing the schedule of events, a map, videos and a vigil candle, is a commerce component.

At the top of the schedule of events is the option to purchase tickets, although a number of the tickets are already listed as being sold out.

But the point is that commerce was included in the initial design of the app rather than being added later.

The reality is that the ticket sales button leads to Ticketmaster, which long ago figured mobile was all about commerce.

But no matter. To consumers using the app, commerce is part of the app experience. The details of the commerce or payment mechanics matter less than the inclusion as part of the app.

And when that happens, the consumer wins and commerce is king.

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