U-commerce transforms the traditional commerce either geographic or electronic or mobile to a world of unique networks having universal devices. Through this users can do “business anywhere, anytime”; using a wide range of devices to invoke personalized services. Let us understand the meaning of various types of commerce and its meaning in this blog.
The word “commerce” emerged from Latin word “commercium” which is also constructed from the two Latin words, “com” means “together” and “mercium” means “trade or trading”. The word mercium also emerged from the Latin word merc/merx/merchandise. In simple terms the word “commerce” means “trade together”. The word “ubiquitous” means “present everywhere” or “found everywhere”. The Latin word “ubi” means “where” and “ubique” means “everywhere”, the modern Latin word “ubiquitas” means “present everywhere”. The word “ubiquitas” pronounced “Ubiquitous” in English. So when we combine terms ubiquitous and commerce it means “trade together everywhere”. Ubiquitous Commerce also known as U-Commerce. It refers to a variety of goods and/or services. Sometimes, it is used to refer to the wireless, continuous communication and exchange of data and information between and among retailers, customers, and systems regardless of location, devices used, or time of day.
Meaning of commerce
Commerce refers to “the exchange of goods and services, especially on a large scale”. It includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural and technological systems that operate in a country or in international trade. Until now we know some of the following types of commerce.
E – Commerce: E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet.
M – Commerce: The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean “the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology.
V – Commerce: Using voice commands to do transactions the click of a button is about to become a distant memory. Instead of placing orders using a screen, consumers will simply speak out loud.
P – Commerce: Proximity commerce using Bluetooth, NFC or infrared technology (Another Term participative commerce also coined for P-commerce but the proximity commerce is more related to our article)
Meaning of U-commerce
U commerce is the concept that buyers and sellers have the potential to interact anywhere, anytime with the use of wireless devices, such as smartphones by buyers to connect with sellers via the Internet where orders can be placed online and payments can be made via credit card or e-wallets.
Core Concepts of U-commerce
- Ubiquitous: represents the ability to be connect at any time and in any place as well as the integration of human-computer interaction into most devices and processes, e.g. household objects.
- Uniqueness: stands for the unique identification of each customer or user regarding his identity, current context, needs and location resulting in an individual service.
- Universal: is related to everyone’s devices which can be used multifunctional and as well as universal –you will always be connected no matter of your place.
- Unison: constitutes the data integration across applications and devices to provide users consistent and fully access to required information independent of device and location. The term unison also relates to fully synchronised devices at any time.
U-Commerce Barriers
- Standards: It means that the application or technology must follow the proper standards. Such as the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model describes how applications and components would communicate with others, or how Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), a subset of OSI model, describes the modern Internet standards.
- Security: As money and information are transmitted across more devices, channels, the security of the transaction becomes more critical. We must extend the same kind of security that exists in the physical world to virtual transactions and to ensure the privacy of users.
- Systems: Systems used to calculate and distribute value across the chain of users involved in transactions, so are the systems to seamlessly integrate the information across the various transaction components.
- Simplicity: The most difficult challenge is to integrate technology with simplicity. Complexities remained in technological equipment and services leads to failure in consumer environment. The country like India the systems must be prepared so simple that even a consumer with illiteracy can handle the technologies.
Suhaag Maheria
Assistant Professor
B. Institute of Management Studies