By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
4/1/2008
I remember the “End of Days” in 2001 – the great popping of the internet bubble - quite well. I was a consultant working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers at the time, and it was like watching a star go nova: as each successive business model or “new economy” gave up the ghost, people ran to the next “big thing” in the hopes it would keep the bubble going, until they finally ran out of fuel and the bubble burst. One of the last of these new “new models” was mobile. As with everything before it, it was going to change the world – overnight.
Well, it’s been more than several nights since then, and wilder predictions aside, I think some of that change-the-world stuff is starting to come true as it relates to mobile. So what does that mean for retailers? Let me give that a shot.
The best place to start in understanding mobile’s impact on retail is to look at how consumers are starting to innovate with mobile technologies in other areas of their lives. Because as surely as day follows night, someone out there will take something they do with their phone now (or, in homage to Max Headroom, 30 seconds from now) and figure out some way to apply it in their shopping experience, leaving retailers either taken by surprise or just flat-out left in the dust by changing consumer behavior.
I’m not talking about what consumers are doing in the realm of mobile coupons (though they exist), or actually transacting a purchase on your phone (though that too exists, even in the US), and I’m not talking about mobile advertising or search, either. What I’m looking at are non-retail, innovative uses of mobile phones in consumers’ everyday lives – and stretching a bit to see how they might apply to retail.
I’ve been “collecting” mobile sites. It has admittedly been haphazard, and I’m not as plugged in as people who make this their exclusive domain (and if you want to really see the mobile frontier, I recommend that you check out commentary that people (I like the guys from OpenGardens) have been making on what Web 2.0 will/should look like on mobile). But here’s what I’ve seen, and my take on how it could potentially play out in retail:
- Guides. Either downloadable, or available through the mobile internet browser, some companies have been creating guides designed to deliver information to people on the go. This is more specialized and also more in-depth than just straight mobile search. The companies providing the guides are lending their expertise to the data to give it more value to the consumer. Examples include Progio, which provides mobile access to a workout plan that you can develop just for you (they also sell a specialized device that includes a heart monitor if you want to be more comprehensive). Golf.com provides a mobile app for finding golf courses.
For Retail: This is an easy adaptation for retail. A mobile recipe guide, for recipe inspiration at the shelf. How about a branded food allergy search? Set up your allergies or sensitivities on, say, Safeway’s mobile allergy monitor, and then enter a product SKU and get back whether it would work or not. Or enter a category and get back recommended products that meet your requirements. You could also do this with nutritional requirements. For apparel, how about a downloadable fashion guide? Not sure what shoes go best with a mini skirt? Check out, say, the Lucky Magazine/Macy’s cobranded fashion finder while you’re standing in the middle of the shoe department…
- Location-based/event-based. There a whole host of companies that are coming out with exciting ways to use mobile phones at events. X-games ran a promotion where attendees could get text message alerts of event results, and get special invites to on-site only parties and give-aways. MyLoki is a simpler, more user- (rather than event-) oriented solution that just lets consumers let friends know where they are through their phone. Buzzd provides specialized search on bars and events that are going on based on your zip code – much like a guide – but also provides a way to let others know where you are and whether it’s cool or not. Skimondo is my favorite though – but it only works in Switzerland. It provides maps of ski resorts, but also uses GPS features to help you find your friends while you’re there, as well as monitor your own performance as you make your runs. How fast were you going down that hill? Skimondo could tell you.
For Retail: This is harder to apply to retail, but could definitely work for malls – an alert when your friends show up, to expand on what NearbyNow is already doing to make malls product searchable. This could also be something to extend to premium customers – for high-value customers to let store associates know that they need help and where to find them. It might also be a way to bring back the Blue Light model that once worked for Kmart – if consumers register their phones, they will get access to limited time in-store specials. Which would only work well if you could guarantee that they’ll receive the messages only while they’re in stores. The retailer gets to see who is in their store, and consumers get special promotions they wouldn’t get otherwise – the win-win relationship that is critical to getting consumers to be willing to share their mobile phones with you. There are more event-based implications to this category that I haven’t figured out – if you have ideas, please share!
- Mobile Gaming. This category seems huge right now. I like the example of PlayYou, because it combines social networking aspects along with user-generated content – users can create and share their own games, which others can tag, rate, and comment on – and download and play, of course. Then there is the mobile gaming of a different type, where consumers can use their mobile phones to play group interactive games that are shown on a large screen, as in what MegaPhone does.
For Retail: The obvious is to create branded games, like the freebie I recently received – a Tony Hawk-branded mobile skate game from Electronic Arts. I’m not sure how that would really work for someone like Target, unless it was a game built around something like the Target Dog as a main character. That’s more in the realm of those out-there alternative channels marketers. Megaphone is more interesting though, because it encourages consumers to interact and to linger. I could see this playing in “third spaces” like Starbucks or a bar. You want to create a sense of community in your space? Try getting people involved in a game…
That’s only a few of the many examples I have – there are things going on around user-generated content, real-world hyperlinks, and of course, the big nut to crack – mobile social networks. Each of these categories changes the way that consumers interact with their environment – and each other – and in turn has an impact on what they are going to expect from retailers. Worst case, if you can’t hold consumers’ attention, something else more diverting may only be as far away as a button on their phones.
But the most important take-away to this evolution is this: of all of the things that I mention above, and across my list of cool things happening in mobile, less than 10% of them actually work on my phone (which for the record is a Blackberry Pearl on the AT&T network). THAT thought is very sobering.
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