eCommerce

Yesterday, I came across an infographic on Mashable called "Why Mobile Commerce is On the Rise." The first thing that came to my mind was "Ugh. Who in their right mind can't wait enough to shop that they go online- from their cell phone- to buy things? How ridiculous."

Then I realized: I'm the ridiculous one. This was the exact same first thought that sparked in my mind when I learned about online shopping. I remember telling my friends in middle and high school how crazy I thought it was to buy something you could not try on or have a tangible connection with before purchasing, and look at where we are now. It's not about enforcing your own ideology- it's moving where the world is taking us.

Culturelabel.com reports that mobile commerce will see an estimate of a 99 fold increase in six years, and 79 percent of large online retailers still don't have a mobile optimized website. Think back to five to 10 years ago, when big retailers were still creating their websites. The internet revolution is happening all over again, but now with mobile devices.

So although I think M-commerce sounds crazy right now, I just have to accept the fact that it is what's going to be normal in a few years. Thinking eCommerce was crazy, then buying practically everything I could think of on the internet freshman year of college shows what a quick change one can make to follow society with purchasing habits. Change happens fast.

Remember six years ago, when we didn't have YouTube? Now mobile YouTube is the No. 1 most visited website on phones and YouTube is one of the top three sites on the internet. Just a few years ago, tablets, iPads and Kindles were released, and now the iPad 3 is taking over and it's becoming normal to carry a keyboard and an iPad around the School of Journalism. So rather than being intimidated by these statistics, let's be early adopters and keep them going. Radio media didn't rebuttle against TV when it came out, print newspapers still exist regardless of having online as an option, and I won't always be buying commercial items on my phone. But we should be fascinated at how far we truly have come to appreciate how nice it is to have the option.