Shopping via mobile phone is taking off. New apps are helping.
More from Forbes
These are dreary days for retailers. As consumers hold back on spending, many vendors are feeling pinched. Yet among the gloom there is a bright spot: Online spending is growing. And another development may spark even more shopping--mobile commerce.
Shopping by mobile phone is still a nascent development. Of the 45 million U.S. cellphone users who take advantage of their phone's Internet connection, just 6.4 million bought something through phone this year, according to research firm Nielsen. U.S. consumers are just now getting the hang of shopping via cellphone, thanks to easy-to-use, mostly-free applications available on smart phones like Apple's iPhone and gadgets running Google's Android software system.
ShopSavvy, an Android app, is just one example of how consumers can use their phone to shop.
This is how it works: The user scans a product's barcode through his phone's camera. Once the ShopSavvy application reads the barcode, it can show the user other local and online outlets that carry the product, and how much each of them is charging. The user can either request that the product be put on hold for local pick-up or order it to be delivered to a specified address. About half of its 1 million users--75% of whom are male--scan consumer electronics. Other popular items are DVDs, videogames, books and groceries.
Big In Japan, the Dallas-based developer behind ShopSavvy, has created a similar application for Apple's iPhone, set to launch in July. ShopSavvy apps for Research in Motion's BlackBerry smart phones and the Palm Pre should be released this fall.
ShopStyle.com--an aggregator of fashionable e-commerce boutiques that was acquired by Bay Area-based, women-focused media firm Sugar, Inc., in 2007--released an iPhone app in May that allows users to easily search and compare prices on their favorite of-the-moment items, be it an Yves Saint Laurent handbag or a pair of Oliver People's sunglasses. The ShopStyle app links directly to the particular item's e-commerce page for a fairly easy purchase.
Price comparison sites are great for bargain shoppers, but individual retailers are also realizing that mobile phone applications not only draw in more customers, they also raise brand awareness. For example, in May athletic footwear company Reebok released Your Reebok, an application for the iPhone that allows users in the U.S. and U.K. to create and purchase personalized sneakers in a variety of colors and materials.
While Reebok may not see a large boost in sales from this app, the company will be noticed by a new group of potential customers. "This is a loyalty device," says Paula Rosenblum, a managing partner at Retails Systems Research, a Miami-based firm that focuses on retail technology. "It's not just about sales; it's also about marketing, promotions and getting closer to the customer."
1-800-Flowers Mobile Gift Center allows BlackBerry and iPhone users to order flowers for all occasions. And Amazon has created a Kindle app for the iPhone that allows users to download over 300,000 books onto their iPhone. If you do have both a Kindle and an iPhone, it automatically syncs your last page read between devices.
From clothing to concert tickets to electronics, consumers can buy pretty much anything on their phone these days. Who said impulse purchasing was a thing of the past?
(Lauren Sherman, Forbes.com)
没有评论:
发表评论