Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular since the introduction of SMS (Short Message Service). And mobile marketing has certainly reached beyond kids and teens: “Given a choice of consumer electronic devices, boomer Internet users overwhelmingly chose PCs over mobile phones (51% and 21%, respectively), while the opposite was true for Gen Y and Gen X (47% and 38%), according to Accenture.” FuorDigital, 2008
More than a year after launch, there are 74,031 apps in the iPhone App store. Not exclusive to the Apple iPhone either, makers of competitor “smart phones” now offer a variety of cellular phone models that allow users to access cell phone applications.
Online shopping has become growingly popular in recent years—as more and more consumers take to the Internet in search of their next purchase. One of the most important consumer benefits associated with an online presence for purchasing is the “access to greater amounts of dynamic information to support consumers’ decision-making. Ghinea and Fagerstrøm, 2010
So what happens when marketers combine the power of mobile marketing with online purchases?
Mobile shopping is born.
A New York Times article describes the phenomenon:
Shoppers will soon be able to stand outside the designer Norma Kamali’s boutique in Manhattan, point a phone at merchandise in the window and buy it— Ms. Kamali is at the forefront of a technological transformation coming to many of the nation’s retailers. They are determined to strengthen the link between their physical stores and the Web, and to use technology to make shopping easier for consumers and more lucrative for themselves.
The main way they plan to do it is by turning people’s mobile phones into information displays and ordering devices. Can’t find the flour at the grocery store? Grocers will offer phone applications that tell shoppers exactly where to go. Is the department store out of size 8 jeans? Retailers want to make it simple to punch a couple of buttons and have the desired size shipped home.
Some supermarkets intend to offer real-time coupons while people shop.
Drugstores will offer loyalty programs on cellphones, not on plastic cards. And specialty chains will allow shoppers to breeze through the aisles compiling a wedding registry, just by pointing at merchandise.
Technology companies behind the products say retailers are sniffing around, with some planning limited introductions this year and wider deployments in 2011 or 2012.
We see the smartphone being used more and more in the shopping experience,” said Dick Cantwell, Cisco’s vice president for retail at Cisco’s Internet business solutions group.
Many big retailers have already created cellphone applications that do more than just dole out coupons. Target, for one, has an application that can identify which store aisle sells nightgowns.
Michael Falco for the New York Times
While many retailers were at first hesitant to adopting the early uses of online purchasing ability—in fear that it would impact the overall revenue too dramatically by reducing the need for brick-and-mortar stores, quite the opposite became true—could mobile buying have the same effect?
I, for one, am anxious to find out.
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