M-Commerce Vs. the Mall

Confessions of an unskilled m-shopper Let's get one thing straight, I do not enjoy shopping. I always wait until the last minute. And then there's my intense hatred of malls and the frenzied mobs that inhabit them during the holiday season. Yet despite advances in technology like e-commerce, I continue to subject myself to this painful annual ritual.

But this year I decided to skip a grade and go directly to m-commerce. In retrospect, this was a bit ambitious. Kind of like learning to ride a bike without training wheels.

My shopping list included a CD, garden clogs, a jewelry box and a digital camera. (OK, anyone who has tried m-commerce can start laughing out loud now. But you'll see, I didn't fail entirely.)

My game plan was to start small - with the CD - and work my way up. At 9:15 a.m., I turned my phone on and pointed its browser at a wirelessly-enabled CD Web site. I chose to search by artist on the opening screen. Until this point, I had navigated easily by using my phone's "mouse" and the "OK" key. Now I had to enter "Metallica" on the keypad. Not so easy.

After waiting about five seconds for the phone to send and receive the information, I was presented with the group's discography. I selected the album "Reload" and clicked "buy" on the bottom of the phone screen. The screen then prompted me to enter my name and password. Password? What? I didn't know I needed a password. After some nervous maneuvering, I was told the site "may not be a wireless Web site ... Only certain types of sites may be accessed." OK. Then why is it on my phone? Clicking on "help" yielded a comforting "No help available here" message.

To buy a CD from your handset, you apparently have to establish an account before logging onto its wireless site. How helpful is this when you're nowhere near a wireline Internet connection? Isn't convenience the whole point of m-commerce applications?

Exasperated, I turned to my desktop PC and found the wired Web version of the same CD site. After two attempts, I successfully established an account with the service - including a password - and re-established my wireless connection.

While surfing the site on my desktop for the second time, I thought, "Now wouldn't this be a lot easier if I just bought it here, on my computer, rather than re-entering the wireless Web?" But I was determined to complete at least one actual purchase on my phone.

They say the third time's a charm. Well "they" have never shopped the wireless Web for a CD. Only a few seconds into the session, it was terminated. The explanation: "Service read error. The site is not responding properly. Please try again later." Even the most annoying teenage record-store clerk can't compete with this lack of customer service.

Thirty seconds later, I logged on again. At this point in the process, I had become quite skilled at weaving my way through the multiple screens. Finding Metallica's "Reload" again, I click "buy." Then, the magical question appeared: "Add to shopping cart?"

The m-commerce gods must have smiled at that point. I painlessly navigated the last few screens to confirm my order and jot down the order number - just in case. (My confidence in the service was not at an all-time high.)

Time check: 10:10 a.m. The whole process took me nearly an hour. In one hour, I could have hopped in my car, driven to the mall, bought the same CD from a human being and saved a lot on my wireless-phone bill. I haven't figured out exactly how much it cost in airtime, but I have this strange feeling of being violated.

I bought only one out of the four gifts on my list using my phone. And even that process required multiple trips to the wireline Internet.

I am not impressed. And neither, it seems, are 75% of those trying m-commerce these days. One in four owners of mobile devices stops using m-commerce applications after the first few attempts, according to a recent report from the Boston Consulting Group.

See you at the mall next year.