As we have been developing several services in the past (e.g. my2cents, APriori) putting more information about products at the consumers' fingertips, I also stumbled over some critics. Tim O'Reilly has put out "buy where you shop" in a recent blog entry. As consumers could abuse and ruin the small shops providing the nice physical experience of the product but don't get a share if you decide to still buy the product online. However, other approaches [1] propose to combine both worlds and to provide benefit both instead of cannibalizing each other: physical stores become showrooms for online stores and receive a share of the online purchase as a re
ward.To that point GS1's MobileCommerce group has yet released another whitepaper [2] outline the various opportunities for retailers to attract customers using mobile technologies.
Focussing on hybrid shopping, i.e. the combination of both online and physical stores [3], is probably more promissing, as consumers probably will never realize the long-term implications (i.e. small shops have to close due to competion from e-tailers).
[1] Lee, K.J., Seo, Y.H.: Design of a RFID-Based Ubiquitous Comparison Shopping System. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems (KES’06) (2006)
[2] Mobile in Retail - Getting your retail environment ready for mobile, A GS1 MobileCom White Paper
[3]Cassar, K.: The Online and In-Store Crossover Conundrum. In Nielsen Consumer Insight Magazine, 2008
2 comments:
Marketing is all about retaining the existing customer base. In an era marked by intensification of competition at every step, a company, be it any, cannot afford to lose its customers. Mobile network operators, around the globe, have realized this fact quite well. As mobile users are accustomed to receive immense benefits in the wake of upgrading the mobiles, they prefer to stay committed to their respective network operators rather than opting for any kind of change. However, before one opts for a mobile upgrade, one must go through all the aspects. One of the most important factors, which must be taken into consideration, is to see whether a mobile user is getting reliable mobile services, as promised by its network operator, or not. Now that is something, which must be taken with due consideration before taking the final call. Visit cash for phones for more information.
I think this presents a real opportunity for retail to reinvent itself. Here is an article that articulates some of the details of this trend.
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