Mobile Marketing For Dummies®

Chapter 13. Engaging in Mobile Commerce

In This Chapter

• Selling stuff through mobile devices

• Setting up mobile billing and commerce

• Billing through mobile carriers and PSMS

• Taking advantage of mobile wallets

Mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, means selling things through a mobile device. It usually involves a monetary transaction as opposed to simply messaging someone who buys something at a later time. You have two basic ways to make money through mobile commerce. First, you can sell content and services that can be consumed on mobile devices, such as ringtones, applications, games, content subscriptions (everything from joke and horoscope of the day to newspaper content), non-profit donations, and more.

The second way to make money through mobile commerce is to sell physical goods and services, like t-shirts, taxi rides, parking meters, hamburgers, computers, tractors, and more, and bill for these items through non-carrier billing channels; for example, credit card, PayPal, or similar billing services.

Charging customers through mobile devices is governed by a select handful of global carriers and paymasters with whom you need a close relationship if you want to collect money from your customers' mobile phones. In fact, every aspect of mobile commerce has its own set of gatekeepers and processes.

This chapter shows you what you need to know about the basics of mobile commerce, how to set things up, and how to bill your customers when you sell content, services, and physical goods ...