24 June 2020

Research pick: Malaysian mobile markets - "The forefront of mobile shopping: an emerging economy’s perspective"

Writing in the International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, a team from Malaysia provides details of the main factors affecting mobile shopping there. The researchers, Chi-Yang Hng and Pik-Yin Foo of Jalan Universiti in Perak, and Ai-Fen Lim and Radha Krishnan Nair of the UCSI University Kuala Lumpur Campus, Malaysia, analysed 300 questionnaires offered to people in shopping malls in the city of Ipoh. Fundamentally, ease of use and mobile-friendliness, rather than “playfulness” of the mobile shopping experience are what might drive shoppers to use these services.

Around the world, the advent of the internet, the emergence of the world wide web, and the opening up of the digital realm to commercial applications operators continues to see more and more people spend more and more of their time online. The shopping experience, regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic in which we are in the midst at the time of writing of this Inderscience Research Pick, has increasingly moved from commerce to e-commerce. Indeed, smartphones are an essential item for those in the developed and developing world today rather than a luxury. Mobile shopping has become reliable and secure.

The team concedes that this preliminary research has limitations in that those surveyed were generally in the younger age group, adults under 30, and mostly Chinese. Nevertheless, if the results might apply to other demographic groups, which may well be demonstrated in follow-up work, it is likely the most mobile shoppers would prefer uncomplicated applications through which to do their online browsing and shopping. There is also a need to ensure that users are kept informed of transactions and account updates and such like.

Hng, C-Y., Foo, P-Y., Lim, A-F. and Nair, R.K. (2020) ‘The forefront of mobile shopping: an emerging economy’s perspective’, Int. J. Services, Economics and Management, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp.21–47.

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