Role of age and gender in the adoption of m-commerce in Australia

Abstract

Sale and purchase of goods and services through m-commerce (or mobile-commerce) are ever increasing. Australia’s m-commerce users are increased from 0.62 million in December 2010 to 3.4 million in December 2013, an increase of 448 percent. This is why the businesses world over is adopting this medium very fast to reach out to their target customers. Age and gender have always been important factors in devising business strategy for any product or service. This paper evaluates the motivation of Australians towards choosing m-commerce over the traditional in-store purchase or the e-commerce with reference to age and gender. Primary data was collected based on a set questionnaire of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The participants of this study were Australian residents above 18 years of age. A total of 61 positive responses were received from respondents. The results show that perceived usefulness has an impact on the use of m-commerce by men whereas women are more influenced by perceived ease of use. To sum up, companies need to spend more resources and efforts to build the trust of customers in m-commerce, communicate their usefulness and enhance its ease of use by making their websites user friendly.