Marketing can be used as a concept which involves a series of the activities right from the production of the goods and services to sales and after sales services. It creates value for the organisation through advertising and promotions.
Mobile computing can be understood as a technology which allow users to transmit the data with the help of different electronic devices. It includes mobile communication, mobile hardware and mobile software. It also involves IT products and services which help users to access information from various sources (Dudhe and Ramteke, 2014).
Marketing and Mobile computing are interrelated. Marketing gets a boom with the use of mobile computing. Millions of dollars are poured into technology just to promote and market the offerings of the retail organisations. It is gaining much popularity in the retail industry as is an approach which is nowadays practiced by many industries globally. In this review of literature, the views and works of different authors will be reviewed in order to analyse the opportunities which are created for businesses in the retail industry.
In the era of globalisation, cloud computing and mobile computing is creating a set of opportunities for the business. It helps in handling huge data with mobility and provides efficiency for the businesses (Sharma and Bohra, 2015). The literature review is done on the concepts and opportunities which are created by mobile computing for the retail business. The project objective and scope are discussed below.
The main objective of the project is to discuss about the usage and importance of cloud computing in recent business development. With the help of mobile computing, the businesses can access the data anytime and anywhere. The project focusses on the opportunities created for the retail businesses by using mobile computing. It involves the discussion of the benefits of using mobile computing and how it can be used to face tough competition in the industry.
Retail organisations are nowadays using various applications and devices which gives a boom to their business. It speeds up marketing of the business at a rapid rate. Mobile applications are used by the giant organisations like Apple and Google to store data and to use it for running their business. They use it further to customise the services for providing better satisfaction to the customers.
The scope of the project is wide as mobile computing is gradually becoming the essential source for data storage and data processing. Mobile computing is practised by many of the sectors across the world. It helps business in creating a strong brand access and in pooling the resources. Because of its much gained popularity in the retail industry in recent years, it is important to study about the opportunities it creates for future business of retail sector.
Introduction
According to Joshi (2014), Mobile computing can be referred to the infrastructure which is used for data storage and communication which could be done with the help of mobile devices. The use of mobile phones is increasing at a rapid pace and this gave rise to the use of mobile computing which helps different businesses to communicate with its existing and potential customers. The mobile devices which are used by the businesses are mobile phones, laptops and tablets with the help of which the businesses are able to report the progress, able to do transportation and shipping and transact well in business.
Retail Industry
As per Ibukun and Daramola (2015), retail industry is the one where the products are brought either from wholesaler or producer and are sold directly to the ultimate consumer for the objective of making profits. Retail industry targets the customers on the basis of different factors like age, gender, location and more and finally provide the products suitable as per their interest. In recent decades, the retail industry at global level have gone under a tremendous transformation. It may be because of the investments made by foreign players or the ease of policies and laws by the government. The government of different nations are supporting their retail industry to grow on a global level (Singh, 2014).
As per the Global retail report by UNI Global Union Retail is one of the largest sectors of global economy and it contributes to the major portion of the revenue for the nations. It contributes to around US$ 15 trillion to the global revenue. The industry is globalised and thus, need to communicate to the large portions of market in order to be active and dominant in the market. The retail industry have also brought new trends and technologies which helps it in global expansion and in the concentration of the industry. The industry have set its feet in online business and transactions. Here, retailing is done through mobile devices and electronic devices with the help of internet. This helps the world to connect with each other sitting at different parts of the world. This has given rise to the technologies like mobile computing (Luce, 2013).
Technologies and Applications of Mobile computing
In the view of Fui and Yazdanifard (2015), to compete on a global scale and to have , retailers nowadays adopt latest technologies and methods which helps them in competing in different markets. This is how, the retailers can get globalisation right. The use of mobile phones have supported in the growth of the marketing of global retail industry. In this era of Information Technology, mobile computing is used by the companies in order to increase their communication and enhance their profits. It provides mobility of information and also make the brands more active in the market.
Smartphones and tablets are used widely to develop applications which provides insights on how to gain maximum customer satisfaction through available information and resources. The retail organisations like Tesco have developed applications from where the customers can shop and they can make easy payments, get loyalty coupons and offers. There are wallet applications from where the buyer can access a wide range of services into the application. The customer can use its smartphone for scanning the barcodes, to check and compare prices online and to make the process easier. GPS technologies are used to track the supply chain process of the company.
Mobile applications are vastly used by people nowadays for the purpose of shopping, making payments and for searching information on the web. There are some challenges with mobile applications like it has low security, limited storage and low processing power but for that purpose mobile computing is providing the ease of access to the information without creating any physical link. It provides fast computation and creates an online platform for the businesses and its marketing to carry on transactions (Fui and Yazdanifard, 2015). For e.g. lot of companies nowadays are developing their applications so that the customers can reach them through mobile. The retail organisations like Zara, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and more have reached mass consumers by developing mobile applications.
Opportunities of using Mobile computing for retail organisations
According to Kulkarni (2016), the mobile retail business is changing the real expectations of the customers. It is also enhancing the experiences of the customers. Retailers are empowering their users by providing them online channels to shop from. They provide options to the customers to shop from a mobile application, website or through their social media accounts. Mobile computing provides opportunities to the businesses to build a personal connection with the customers. A survey was conducted by a mobile marketing company which found that nearly half of the retail customers are using mobile applications while shopping. It is because the customers of today are more vigilant and aware about the prices, options and quality. With the use of web, customers can compare the product details and make comparisons.
The use of mobiles is transforming the retail industry. In the countries like United States and Europe, customers are shopping through their mobile phones more than they shop in physical stores. As per the report of IBM, the future of mobile computing shows that retail is going to be better in terms of marketing, connectivity and revenue. The companies are nowadays investing in mobile computing and it clearly indicates that it will create much opportunities for the businesses for the purpose of marketing their products and services. Mobile computing is creating various opportunities for retail business across the world. It creates opportunities for selling their products across the globe and creates a competitive advantage. It is because more than 50% of the customers are buying through their mobile phones and applications today. This means that the retail businesses cannot afford to ignore their retail customers. It is also found that 80% of the customers use a mobile device or any application while making a buying decision which is convenient for the marketers, businesses and the customers too. This encourage the retailers to move to mobile computing (Kulkarni, 2016)
According to Pantano and Priporas (2016), mobile computing is also used by the retail businesses in creating new products. Mobile computing helps the businesses in using the data provided and in analysing it. It helps in making the quantitative decisions in order to produce and sell the available products. It also helps retail businesses to take informed decisions timely which assist further in settling the business in the hard core competition in the industry. The retailers are able to do data analysis which helps in catching the buyers with interest in the products and services of the business. It helps in developing unique products and competitive business in the industry. Mobile computing also creates an opportunity for the business ventures to manage their inventory. The business can track down their assets which further helps in managing the orders, availability of stock and in managing the details of shipping and transportation. It assists in proving best customer service therefore enhancing the experience of the customers. To stay among the top players in the industry, retail businesses develop new products and innovate their products constantly. It is also cost effective technique for the businesses to meet the requirements of the customers in fast paced changing business environment. Mobile computing creates opportunity for the businesses to provide quicker services to the customers and to manage their costs. It increases efficiency of the business to manage the information about the customers and likes and dislikes. It helps in gaining insights about the customer’s choices and habits. It helps in managing their preferences and developing services as per it. This ultimately contributes in business to bring in selected products and services in the business which satisfies the customers (Dudhe and Ramteke, 2014).
The retail companies have to hire professional services for managing their mobile computing services. For this, they pay fee and take services in return. This helps them to eliminate the high software costs which they pay for managing data and for the purpose of communication with the customers. It provides easy access to the company to the services without any interruption (Davidson, 2017). Lower cost and high speed activities have created an opportunity for the retail business to create value for the business. Mobile computing provides accurate and relevant data to the business which helps them to access the customer’s buying habits and preferences. It also helps in getting the information about the competitor of the business which is prevalent in the local areas and at the global level as well. There are thousands of start-up companies which uses mobile computing in order to compete in the highly competitive environment (Davidson, 2017).
In the view of Sharma and Bohra (2015), mobile computing helps in enabling the improvement in the accessibility of information which enhances the operational efficiency of the organisations. It is done by saving time of the business, cutting costs, reducing the wastes and by increasing the accuracy. In Retail business, mobile computing is used in generating the information about customers. Without mobile computing it would become cumbersome to collect information and to manage it. It also helps in transportation and shipping processes. It is done through the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) where the operations of different stores and locations can be tracked down from a single location. The trucks and loading vehicles which carries the products from the warehouse to the retail stores are optimally tracked for the purpose of making delivery on time and to keep a note on their fuel consumption. It helps in reducing the costs for the business. Before mobile computing, manual tracking system was used by the businesses which was not of desired efficiency and quality. For bringing a competitive edge in the operations of the company, it needs to adopt mobile computing which helps in recording the information about drivers, does timely deliveries and reduces costs which ultimately helps in providing better customer services. Mobile computing can be used for billing services, tracking of shipping and for advertising the services of the retail organisation.
Mobile computing creates an opportunities for the general operations of the retail business. It helps in connecting different branches of the retail stores so that the supply and availability of the stock can be tracked down. It also helps in managing employees and in improving their efficiency. It helps in reporting that which product is out of stock from the inventory and which product is now expired. The flow of information increases effectiveness of the management. Mobile computing provides versatility to the business operations. It provides many benefits which makes it a versatile technology. It enables clear and smooth interaction with the customers and with the employees in the retail business. It has many strategic advantages also for the business. It supports management to take decisions for the development and implementation of strategies in the business. It is responsible for changing the processes of the business in order to bring improvement in them (Desai, 2016).
As per Singh (2014), it is clear that Mobile computing makes business more powerful and helps businesses of retail in performing versatile activities. According to Desai (2016), mobile computing allows the customers of retail business to access and do online transactions from anywhere and at any time with much faster activities and security. It enhances the range of reachability which creates an opportunity for the retail business to expand and grow its market. It helps in providing the knowledge about various customer segments and their preferences in different regions of the world so that the business could think of expanding and setting up its business wherever they feel most suitable. This is done after doing proper research and data analysis. The global companies in retail sector like Walmart, Woolworths, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and more have set its feet in different geographical locations with the help of mobile computing and now expanding their operations successfully because of the easy access to the information of the local geographies.
The author further discusses the issues of mobile computing. The challenges of implementing mobile computing includes the issue of network unavailability in various parts of the world. It can disrupt the normal course of operations in the business. It may also lead to the delay in the performance of the business. The businesses may face security issues while using mobile computing. It may also include high costs for the businesses sometimes when the transactions of data is not in volumes and the fees paid to the network providers is high (Ibukun and Daramola, 2015)
Thus, it can be said that mobile computing offers an opportunity for the retail business in the present business scenario. It helps in deriving better performance with minimum investments in the business. In the current state of the economy, it is clearly visible that mobile computing is shaping the future of the retail industry. It makes business attractive for the customer as well because with a single device a customer can access all data, anywhere in the world. The digitised journey of the customer also generates customer satisfaction which ultimately helps retail business and its growth.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that Mobile computing is the latest trend in the field of technology and business. Lot of businesses these days are adopting mobile computing in order to successfully promoting their products and services to grow and expand their business. It offers numerous benefits for the businesses like it increases accessibility of the business, increases efficiency of the operations and effectiveness of the activities of the business. It’s a technology which provide benefits to today’s business and help in achieving its objectives. The technologies, when carefully selected creates an opportunity to flourish for the businesses. Mobile computing can be considered as the next generation of business applications which provides necessary solutions for the development of retail industry. The business can have advantage of the same and can flourish to have a competitive edge in the industry. There are gaps in the literature reviewed. None of the article discussed about the processes of using mobile computing and the applications which can be used for gaining advantages from them. The further project will discuss about the methods which will be used in conducting the research on the opportunities making business by using mobile computing in retail business.
References
Ahmed, N (2012). Retail Industry Adopting Change. ARCADA.
Davidson, B J (2017). Cloud Computing is Changing Retail: Here’s how [Online]. Available on: https://percentotech.com/bobbyjdavidson/cloud-computing-retail/ [Accessed 24 April 2018].
Desai, N S (2016). Mobile Cloud Computing In Business. International Journal of Information Sciences and Techniques (IJIST) Vol.6, No.1/2.
Dudhe, P D and Ramteke, P L (2014). Mobile Computing with WirelessLAN and its Modes Ad hoc Network with Challenges. International Journal Of Computer Science And Mobile Computing, 3(4).
Fui, W and Yazdanifard, R (2015). Opportunities and Challenges in the World of Retailing and the Importance of Adaption to the New Markets. International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics. Vol. 2, No. 9.
Ibukun, E and Daramola, O (2015). A systematic literature review of mobile cloud computing. International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering, 10(12), pp.135-52.
Joshi, L (2014). Impact of Mobile Computing for Users. International Journal of Advance Research in Computer Science and Management Studies, Volume 2, Issue 1.
Kulkarni, C (2016). How Mobile Technologies Are Innovating The On-Site Retail Experience [Online]. Available from https://www.inc.com/chirag-kulkarni/how-mobile-technologies-are-innovating-the-on-site-retail-experience.html [Accessed on 21 April 2018].
Luce, S (2013). Global Retail Report. UNI Global Union.
Pantano, E and Priporas, C V (2016). The effect of mobile retailing on consumers’ purchasing experiences: A dynamic perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, pp.548-555.
Sharma, P S and Bohra, S U (2015). Mobile Cloud Computing: Its Challenges and Solutions. . International Journal Of Computer Science And Mobile Computing. Vol. 4, Issue. 5, pg.287 – 293.
Singh, K (2014). Retail Sector in India: Present Scenario, Emerging Opportunities and Challenges. IOSR Journal of Business and Management
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