Mobile  Web  
The  potential  business  impact  of  Mobile    Web    in    
Retail    Sector  over  the  next  5  years.  

Vasilisa  Solovyeva  ,  Bsc  Business  Studies  ,  Part  2    

 
 
 
 
 
 

2010
 
  
Part  1  Background  
1.1 Technology  or  Trend  
Mobile  Web  
1.2 Sector  Chosen    
Retail,  food  and  agriculture  
1.3 More  narrowly  focus  
Retail  
1.4 Brief  Definition  
Mobile  Web  refers  to  accessing  www  (world  wide  web)  using  mobile  
device)  
 
Part  2  Business  Analysis  
2.1  More  detailed  definition  
 
Mobile  Web  is  an  ongoing  trend  that  associated  with  increasing  number  
of  Smartphone  users,  that  allows  communicating  on-­‐the-­‐go.    However,  
despite  that  advantage  over  fixed  Web,  mobile  access  still  suffers  from  
usage  and  interoperability  problems,  like  slow  speed,  small  screen  size,  
lack  of  proper  keyboard  etc.  
 
2.2  Key  general  features  of  the  technology/trend  for  business  
 
In  order  to  access  key  general  features,  intellegent  exploiter  framework,  
more  particulary  effective  systems,  can  be  used.  The  framework  of  
effective  systems  consists  of  four  steps,  progressing  from  the  basic  need  
of  effective  information  systems,  through  information  management  
skills  and  business  intelligence  up  to  business  innovation.  The  whole  
process  transfers  a  company  from  enabling  with  new  technology  to  
winning  with  IT  i.e.  transferring  it  effectively  into  competitive  
advantage1  (Holtham,  2008).  The  implementation  of  effective  mobile  
website,  that  have  user  friendly  content  allows  to  manage  information  
about  customers,  competitors  and  market  and  the  effective  use  of  its  
features  will  led  to  competitive  advantage.  
 
The  key  general  features  of  adopting  retailing  on  mobile  web  are  the  
ability  to  serve  the  growing  number  of  mobile  web  user  entering  
company’s  website,  track  customers  behavior,  maintain  better  and  
longer  relationship  with  customer  as  it  fits  with  their  lifestyle,  ability  to  
attract  new  customers  via  customer’s  social  network.    
 
2.3  Assessment  of  potential  business  benefit  and  risk  of  the  technology  to  the  sector.  
 
The  number  of  mobile  users  is  growing.  They  are  new  potential  
customer  segment  for  the  retailers.    Half  of  owners  of  mobile  devices  
are  already  use  it  for  shopping  and  they  show  considerable  enthusiasm  
for  doing  so2  (Mintel,  2010).  
The  clear  benefit  is  that  by  adopting  mobile  website  as  a  new  
distribution  channel,  the  new  potential  customers  can  be  targeted  and  
the  offer  can  be  delivered  on-­‐demand  due  to  customers’  constant  
availability  online.  
The  other  ability  of  adopting  mobile  web  is  to  track  customer  habits  
according  to  his  or  her  behavior  online.  This  includes  deliver  a  
suggestion  of  a  searching  type  product;  gain  information  from  
customers’  reviews  for  better  customer  service.  These  benefit  have  been  
adopted  by  Amazon  mobile  as  an  extension  of  its  traditional  strategy  of  
using  customers’  reviews  and  product  suggestions  on  Fixed  Web  online  
shopping.  
Moreover,  since  the  availability  of  company’s  mobile  website  its  become  
more  easily  to  retain  customer  loyalty,  as  it  delivers  offer  whenever  and  
wherever,  which  is  most  important,  customers  are.  
The  recent  trend  associated  with  mobile  web  is  an  access  to  social  
networking  via  mobile  browser.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that,  mobile  is  
about  networking,  sharing  information  and  knowledge  and  keeping  in  
touch.  Therefore,  the  experience  of  one  customer  on  company’s  website  
could  be  shared  immediately  with  the  friends,  who  in  the  future  could  
become  potential  customer.  Here  the  main  drawback  arrives,  due  to  
operability  and  usability  problems  associated  with  mobile  web  use,  
unpleasant  experience  will  be  shared  immediately,  which  leads  to  
loosing  potential  customers.  In  order  to,  eliminate  this  type  of  risk  an  
introduction  of  .mobi  version  can  be  adopted:  to  auto-­‐detect  mobile  
device  and  to  re-­‐direct  to  .mobi  version,  where    more  convenient  
content  could  be  delivered  and  more  efficiently.  
 
Part  3:  Describing  one  vision  of  the  scenario  in  5  years  time.  
3.1  Simple  story-­‐telling  describes  how  the  technology-­‐sector  scenario  might  turn  ot  in  
five  years  time.  
 
According  to  Mintel3  (2009),  mobile  Internet  usage  is  dominated  by  
social  networking  websites.  This  is  due  to  the  popularity  of  social  
network  as  a  trend.  In  the  future  mobile  web  not  only  overcome  Fixed  
Web,  but  also  will  have  a  social  element  of  future  mobile  retailing4  
(Rainie,  Anderson,  2008).  The  point  of  the  benefit  of  social  element  for  
retailing  refers  to  the  statistics  published  by  Neilsen  Company,  that  
show  that  90%  of  respondents  trust  peer  recommendations5.  Therefore,  
in  personal  opinion,  the  adoption  of  social  element  practices  for  mobile  
web  retailing  is  a  future  development  of  mobile  web  trend.  From  the  
simple  story  telling,  the  social  element  practices  includes,  notifications  
of  new  purchases  on  social  network  websites,  with  an  ability  to  leave  
comment  or  make  ranking  for  friends.  For  example,  the  customer  who  
bought  the  product  after  peer’s  recommendation  will  have  an  option  to  
post  notification  on  personal  page  immediately  after  completed  
transaction  on  company’s  mobile  website.  The  main  advantage  for  the  
company  of  this  option  is  a  generation  of  world  of  mouth  marketing.  
However,  the  risks  are  associated  with  a  bad  customer  experience,  i.e.  
bad  information  widespread  with  enormous  speed  and  will  cover  a  lot  of  
potential  customers.  
Moreover,  mobile  devices  provide  opportunity  for  location-­‐based  
services  via  mobile  web.  This  trend  is  recently  emerged,  but  expected  to  
have  a  great  impact  in  the  future6  (Economist,  2010).  The  main  source  of  
advantage  here  is  that  it  provides  more  effective  information  for  
marketing  decisions,  i.e.  the  potential  customer  can  be  targeted  not  only  
according  to  his  or  her  search,  but  also  according  to  his  or  her  location.  
That  means  that  in  the  near  future  the  customers  will  no  longer  search  
for  an  offer  –  they  [offers]  will  find  customers.  The  mobile  web  practices  
will  enable  it  with  the  future  trend  of  social  networking  and  location  
based  service.  
In  the  future,  more  mobile  devices,  that  enable  better  mobile  web  usage  
will  be  launched.  The  first  sign  is  an  introduction  of  revolutionary  iPad  
from  Apple.  So,  this  means  that  more  new  similar  devices  will  be  
introduced  by  competitors  in  the  near  future,  which  will  be  designed  for  
more  user  friendly  surfing  on  the  web.  Therefore,  future  mobile  devices  
make  it  easier  to  shop  online  and  that  will  help  boost  the  market2  
(Mintel,  2010).  
 
3.2  Reference  to  Nicholas  Carr,  “Does  IT  matter?”  
 
Nicholas  Carr’s  article  derives  with  argument  that  IT  has  become  a  
commodity,  due  to  increased  availability  and,  thus,  decreased  costs.  IT  
becomes  no  longer  matter,  as  it  no  longer  delivers  strategic  advantages7  
(Carr,  2003).    
 
Mobile  web  allows  many  advantages  for  businesses,  however,  as  
Nicholas  Carr  pointed,  it  is  highly  replicable.  Therefore,  competitors  
could  gain  exactly  the  same  benefits.  But  it  is  not  necessarily  that  they  
use  it  in  the  same  way.  The  competitive  advantage  of  using  mobile  web  
practices  will  be  determined  by  how  effectively  the  derived  information  
is  used.  This  point  is  also  supported  by  Prof.  Clive  Holtham’s  article  
(2008),  where  Professor  mentioned  that  the  key  benefit  of  IT  is  a  
behavior  of  the  people  involved  with  it  on  both  business  side  and  on  the  
IT  side8.  
 
Part  4:  References  and  sources.  
4.1  Reliability  and  objectivity  of  the  used  sources.  
 
References  that  have  been  used  for  this  coursework  come  from  
materials  published  by  well-­‐established  authorities,  like  databases,  
journal  articles.  The  information  that  have  been  used  is  also  up-­‐to-­‐date  
according  to  publishers.  Therefore,  it  is  considered  reliable.  However,  I  
would  like  to  mention  that  in  order  to  arrive  with  some  ideas,  UGC  (user  
generated  content),  like  blogs  and  YouTube  videos,  has  been  used  as  a  
starting  point  of  research.    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
4.2  References  
1. Holtham,  C.,  2008.  Intelligent  Exploiter  Manual.  Cass  Business  
School  
2. Mintel,  2010.  E-­‐commerce  UK  -­‐  February  2010.  [Online].  Available  
at:  http://0-­‐
academic.mintel.com.wam.city.ac.uk/sinatra/oxygen_academic/m
y_reports/display/id=479843&anchor=atom#atom0  [Accessed  8  
March  2010]  
3. Mintel,  2010.  Social  networking-­‐November-­‐2009.  [Online].  
Available  at:  http://0-­‐
academic.mintel.com.wam.city.ac.uk/sinatra/oxygen_academic/s
earch_results/show&/display/id=394655  [Accessed  27  February]  
4. Rainie,  L.,  Anderson  J.,  2008.  The  Future  of  Internet.  [Online].  
Available  at:  http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/The-­‐
Future-­‐of-­‐the-­‐Internet-­‐III.aspx  [Accessed  5  March  2010]  
5. Burmaster,  A.,  Lee,  L.,  McGiboney,  M.,  2009.  Personal  
recommendations  and  consumer  opinion  posted  online  are  the  
most  trusted  advertising  globally.  Neilsen.  [Online]  Available  at:  
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-­‐
content/uploads/2009/07/pr_global-­‐study_07709.pdf  [Accessed  8  
March  2010]  
6. Economist,  2010.  Follow  me.  The  Economist.  [Online]. Available
at: http://www.economist.com/business-
finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15612291 [Accessed 20 March
2010]  
7. Carr,  N.,  2003.  IT  doesn’t  matter?  Harvard  Business  Review,  May,  
p.41.      
8. Holtham,  C.,  2008.  The  Intelligent  Exploiter.  Computing,  23  Oct.