M-Commerce

Ericsson M-Commerce Interconnect

Ericsson M-Commerce Interconnect enables instant transactions between mobile wallets by connecting operators with other service providers.

Executive summary

The m-commerce industry is predicted to have huge growth, and we are now experiencing the second wave of m-commerce development driven by consumer expectations and convenience.

According to World Bank estimates, only 1.5 billion people in the world have a bank account. However, more than 1.7 billion people who don’t have a bank account did have access to mobile phones in 2012.

Ericsson’s Charging & Billing in One solution already serves 2 billion customers. By using Ericsson’s M-Commerce portfolio, operators could readily convert these pre-paid accounts to m-wallet accounts.

User experience

With more than 50 billion connected devices expected in the world by 2020, mobile devices today have already made our social and professional lives more convenient. Now people are looking for the same convenience, access and choice in their financial lives. Consumers expect a seamless user experience, independent of device.

The industry now needs to work towards building a new interoperable financial ecosystem that can reduce the complexities of moving money from person-to-machine and machine-to-machine across international boundaries and across diverse banking systems, levels of financial literacy and regulation.

Operator benefits

With mobile money integrated with the Ericsson Charging System, operators can provide attractive cross-promotion and service bundling, such as voice/data, wallet and value-added services. They can leverage existing operator assets and accelerate the evolution from airtime accounts to mobile wallets.

Electronic-money transactions, including person-to-person money transfers, people-to-business payments, ticketing, metering, real-time charging and much more, will be a foundation for service enablement.

Content providers and retailers are looking to market goods and services directly to consumers and are therefore interested in different payment options. This can open up a new role for operators that are willing to embrace the possibilities that m-commerce and mobile payments offer.