Content Analysis of M-Commerce: A Comparison of Apparel and Non-apparel Sites

Abstract

<p>To conduct a systematic and comprehensive assessment on mobile sites' performance in facilitating mobile shopping, this study examined whether availability of service attributes differ between apparel and non-apparel mobile sites. The comprehensive coding guide developed and validated in the context of e-commerce research guided the conceptual development of this study. Mobile sites (N=194) from Internet Retailer (2011) were selected for content analysis. The updated m-commerce coding guide included the five dimensions such as convenience, customization, information, communication and visual merchandising. The findings show that apparel mobile sites outperform non-apparel sites for the convenience, customization and communication dimensions. No difference was found for the information and visual merchandising dimensions. The findings of this exploratory study offer a useful snap shot of the current performance of m-commerce sites for both scholars and practitioners.</p>