Consumers are increasingly using their smartphones for making purchases, with the other modes being traditional offline and online channels (Kim et al., 2017). In light of the growing number of smartphone users worldwide, many e-commerce companies have responded by launching mobile apps that offer more convenient and flexible shopping experiences to smartphone users (Bang et al., 2013). A number of e-commerce related studies have identified crucial differences between mobile shopping (m-shopping) and online shopping. They find that m-shopping provides greater flexibility in terms of time and place as well as multi-tasking capabilities (for instance, a mobile shopper can communicate with others and even post a picture of an item to social media asking for others’ opinions and comments, all while shopping via a mobile app). These types of apps simultaneously cater to consumers’ shopping and social affiliation needs (Yang et al., 2012). Current research has shown that this type of shopping has gradually become habitual or automatic (Shankar et al., 2016). This new type of e-commerce has brought about a change in the shopping behavior of customers, thereby challenging companies to develop specific strategies to attract this new breed of shoppers.

• Miao Miao(Faculty of Business Administration, Ritsumeikan University, Japan)