Factors to consider when adapting to M-commerce : From a design perspective

Sammanfattning: Mobile commerce through smart phones as an extension of the traditional electronic commerce is becoming widely implemented together with the IT development and increased usage of smart phones. The thesis is limited to the design factors to consider when adapting to m-commerce for the apparel industry, since this industry has a long experience in online and mail order business. Sales of clothing and footwear have its roots in the mail order business, which means that many users are already accustomed to purchase at a distance, which had facilitated the development.Adapting to the m-commerce trend has resulted in both profitable and user related benefits, but there are also some difficulties during the adaption to the several m-commerce solutions as well as to offer the user an accessible design and user experience. It is common that the smartphone is the only mobile device one has at the moment when a need occurs for product search or media consumption. Even though the screen size and the connection speed of a smart phone, people might at least make an attempt to use their smartphones for these purposes. For example, users keep having experiences of struggling with an unwieldy website on the smartphone to get something done. In conjunction with faster mobile networks and more powerful mobile devices, this behavior will become only more prevalent. The purpose is therefore to investigate the important design factors that exist when adapting to m-commerce and to find out what of these factors are important for the apparel industry to consider when adapting to m-commerce in order to develop an m-commerce design most suitable for the user experience. To obtain the purpose the main research question ”What are the design factors to consider for the apparel industry today when adapting to m-commerce?” is being answered in this thesis.To achieve the purpose of the study, qualitative process and data as well as quantitative process and data were used. From scientific articles, related work and independent surveys a theoretical review was carried out. The literature review has been conducted through search engines such as Summon from Högskolan i Borås and Google Scholar. The empirical study consist of an online self-completion questionnaire done by 40 respondents that has been distributed through social media, and two person-to-person interviews with the two Swedish companies in the apparel industry, Eton AB and a Swedish web shop. In the information collection we have always been concerned to get relevant, unbiased and reliable information. We have evaluated all the materials by the alternative criteria, trustworthiness as mentioned in Bryman & Bell (2011). This is done in order to uphold credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability in the material and conclusions founded in the study.The results from this study involve several factors focusing on the design that may be important when adapting to an m-commerce solution in the apparel industry. These factors are drawn from analysis and discussion of the collected theory and the empirical data, from different perspectives including; user habits, user expectations, perceived security contra actual security, the transaction chain, and payment methods. Factors that are found are: The importance to adapt to m-commerce, even if the smart phone traffic and orders are low at the moment; To achieve a good and trustworthy user interface; To have different options for the user, including payment and access options; The ease of use and navigation on the web shop; The visibility of products and to have clear information on the web shop; Learnability: to make it simple for the users to use the web shop; Efficiency: to secure so that the users don’t has to spend too much time and energy to complete their task; Effectiveness: concerning the speed and to which degree the user successfully complete their task; Satisfaction is critical since if the m-commerce system does not appeals to the user they may feel less inclined to use it; Payment systems concerning the adaption to payment solutions for m-commerce web shops; Liability consider who is responsible of what parts as well as making it easy for the users to understand who to turn to if they have questions or complaints; Privacy and security, considering how to defend the m-commerce solution towards increased security threats users may face as well as making the users trusting the web shop enough to use the solution.