Commentary

Mobile Commerce Meets The Internet of Things

While projections of the scope of the mobile commerce market are huge by any measure, the addition of millions of connected devices promises to dramatically increase the actual dollar value into the trillions.

Over the next decade, the Internet of Things (IoT) will generate $8 trillion in value, according to a new report.

The new trend report from Cisco and DHL cites five primary value drivers; innovation and revenue, asset utilization, supply chain and logistics, employee productivity improvements and enhanced customer experience. The last of the five is where the growth in mobile commerce comes in.

The ultimate effect of IoT extends beyond connected things and involves people, essentially providing the capability to network everything with everyone.

Besides it being the title of a new book I’m researching, The Internet of Everything is much more than physical objects connecting and communicating with each other. It’s about creating and leveraging links among people, technology, processes and data to provide value to the consumer.

Unfortunately, along with IoE (The Internet of Everything) comes a wave of new acronyms including M2M (machine-to-machine), M2P (machine-to-person), P2P (person-to-person), the latter often involving peer-to-peer mobile payments.

Retail is one the industries facing a dramatic impact by IoE as connected stores allow shoppers to receive needed information based on context.

Beacons are at the tip of this iceberg as early trails allow marketers to interact with shoppers based on more precise, in-store locations.

Advertising also will play a role in the world of IoT as marketers innovate ways to leverage the masses of data that so many connected things will provide. (MediaPost is hosting a conference around the subject, IoT: Advertising at Internet Week.)

Beside sensors such as beacons and messaging via advertising, retailers can expect greater efficiencies in the entire shopping experience, according to the report.

These will include mobile payments, checkout optimization, in-store shopper guidance and what the report refers to as hyper-relevance, allowing consumers to receive what they want, when and how they want it.

Most consumers may never see or notice all the connected objects around them. But they will feel their impact.

 

Next story loading loading..

Discover Our Publications