Tip of the Iceberg for Mobile Apps and Retail

6 Mobile Apps That Evolve The Shopping Experience

AdAge picks 6 of their favorite mobile apps that are evolving the retail experience. Mobile shapes the shopping experience by not being either "online" or "offline". Mobile further demonstrates how the experience becomes more engaging, more immediate and the brand more connected to the consumer.

Retailers who's floor staff are paid on commission and therefore not working to access the greatest amount of information (via online or mobile) are selling their own expertise short in the mind of the consumer.

Are you wondering why make the effort to actively pursue the customer at every touchpoint? Because you may lose the sale if you don't. The digital experience should be mapped out in this 360 world to help prioritize what content should be created, organized and served up to the consumer.

Read the original article on AdAge here: http://bit.ly/9tEO1n .

Demo of the sixth sense. TED.

This is amazing, how interactive meets, retail, shopper marketing and the physical world. This demo shows how we may be gathering information, make decisions and interacting in the future, not to mention the it's the tip of the iceberg for usability design. fascinating!

Mobile Couponing Tipping Point?

To date, other than Cellfire, success in Mobile couponing has been somewhat limited due to inability of checkout scanner to read bar codes on phones. The lack of this functionality has put a burden on retail compliance because of complexity created for cashiers, sandwich makers, etc. without a scannable bar code.

A new iPhone App, called Cardstar, may be just be a game changer in mobile couponing – The App is the first we've see where a UPC Code can be created on a phone and scanned at checkout (handheld scanner only) at major retailers.

It is being marketed as a loyalty card manager where you no longer need to carry your grocery loyalty cards with you once you have loaded them to your phone.

We tested it and it worked at a CVS store & Petco, but in reading the reviews there seem to be many instances where it does not. The CardStar App is available at the App store.

Definitely something worth watching!

Cell Phone Coupons Get Local

I was just watching ABC News and they featured a piece on a new player, 8Coupons, in the Cell Phone Couponing industry. They have a wide array of local NYC offers from services, to Spa and Beauty to restaurants. They work with/train local vendors to make it easy for the consumer to simply show the offer on their phone to the cashier to get their offer. Could this be the end of the local coop mailer that stuff our mailboxes each month? Check it out at:

http://www.8coupons.com/

Vote for the next Wegmens WPOP

Wegmens is soliciting the help of its shoppers to vote on the next flavor of its private label CSD line "WPOP". As incentive, shoppers can win from a variety of prizes (patio packages, wii consoles, etc.) The promotion is featured on-pack and linked to a micro-site off wegmens.com. One of the first private label promotions I've seen. Its also advanced given the unique codes on packgaing linked to the promotional microsite.

http://www.wegmansvoteandwin.com/

Grocery Retailers rethink merchandising

Everyone knows that when you go to the grocery store, the bread in on the left, the produce is on the right, the meat is in the back, and you are going to do a loop in one direction or another, with occasional forays into the center for essential items like cereal. The best a CPG marketer can hope for is an end-aisle display to have their product featured within the perimeter "racetrack" itself.

Piggly wiggly has opened up an experimental format in Myrtle Beach, SC that takes that standard approach and turns it inside out, organizing products in what they claim is a more logical pattern. This includes things like placing the cereal next to the milk and putting frozen corn near fresh corn.

Will it work, or will it confuse the hell out of people who have been shopping grocery the same way for decades? Only time will tell.