M-commerce plays matchmaker: Shopify partners with MartMobi

Everyone who cares enough about the flourishing e-commerce industry knows about the next big change that is going to happen. Within the next few years, most shoppers will use their mobile phones for transactions. In fact, if the figures are any indication, several big online marketplaces receive about half of their sales via mobiles.

Shopify & MobiMart tie the knot

Considering the huge potential of the mobile platform, Shopify has partnered with the m-commerce enabler platform MartMobi. Shopify is an e-commerce solution that facilitates setting up of an online store to sell goods by a particular retailer or vendor. This will ensure that Shopify’s retailers can go mobile easily, without any hassle. MobiMart is already popular with overseas sellers. With this move, Shopify aims to get more Indian retailers on-board. The MartMobi platform provides mobile, tablet sites and native Android/ iOS apps. This covers all the m-commerce arenas for now.

According to Satya Krishna Ganni, founder and CEO of MartMobi, “with mobile commerce hitting 800 percent growth in 2014 and more than 40 per cent traffic coming from Mobile devices, it’s time for merchants to go mobile.”

This is not Shopify’s very first alliance with an online marketplace though. Even GetitBazaar (now askmebazaar.com), an e-commerce marketplace, had previously tied up with Shopify. This was in order to give the SMEs associated with it the opportunity to have an independent e-commerce website.

The m-commerce effect

Previously, several internet-based companies had optimized their websites for mobile phones.  These include MakeMyTrip and Naukri, which have cashed in on the m-commerce wave. Flipkart has also invested heavily in acquiring mobile customers, even introducing a special sale with discounts available only through the app.

It is quite clear from these initiatives by leading e-commerce companies that m-commerce is slowly but steadily gaining mileage. It is no wonder that Shopify fell in love with MobiMart. Some matches are made in heaven indeed!