Given the documented ability of mobile apps, search, and social networking to lift sales, it makes forehead-smacking sense for retailers to shift their focus away from sales lost to showrooming into harnessing the shopper’s in-store wireless experience for themselves and their brands. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
From shopping and buying to owning and using products, consumers’ experiences largely determine the success of both retailers and brands. By voting with their feet, wallets, and social media, consumers reward companies that make their lives easy, risk-free, and pleasurable. As proof, you can witness the […] Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This edition of the GigaOM Research podcast discusses mobility’s impact on the shopping experience, for both the retailer and the consumer. Read more »
Shopular, a location-aware mobile app, is officially launching Friday to serve up relevant in-store deals while consumers are shopping. To start, the app will only alert shoppers once it senses that they’re at a shopping mall, but the company plans to expand to more locations. Read more »
Etsy, the marketplace for handmade goods, is rolling out a new mobile app in time for the holiday season. One in four visits to the site comes from a mobile app and mobile visits are twice as likely to convert to purchases, Etsy said. Read more »
Fab says it has “reimagined” its mobile apps, updating its app for the iPad and optimizing it for the iPhone 5. One-third of Fab’s sales come from mobile but it’s looking to when mobile shopping contributes half of its revenue. Read more »
Social commerce startup Wikets, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures, is rolling out a new version of its app that builds out its shopping functionality. To date, it has focused on building a network of shoppers who ask for and make recommendations. Read more »
Shopping app NetPlenish is launching today with the promise of giving users a better deal on the bundle of products they regularly buy. Instead of getting a good price on one product, users can see which retailer has the lowest price on their entire shopping cart. Read more »
Smartphones and tablets are driving both in-store and online commerce, but their roles are distinct in many ways. Nielsen shed some light on how consumers are using both devices to aid their shopping. Overall, 79 percent of respondents have shopped using their smartphone or tablet. Read more »
Fab.com said iPad users represent 15 percent of its customer but make up 25 percent of revenue. And 40 percent of iPad users make their first purchase within 3 months. IPad app users are expected to bring in twice as much revenue as non iPad users. Read more »
Mobify’s CEO Igor Faletski, whose company helps sites optimize for mobile, said almost all of Mobify’s work thus far has been to optimize for smartphones. But he said this year many sites are preparing to build specifically for tablets, taking advantage of their unique capabilities. Read more »
The Pew Internet and American Life Project shed light on one of the biggest challenges for retailers: more than half of U.S. adult cell phone owners used their mobile phone during the recent holiday season to get in-store help for their purchases. Read more »
ShopSavvy, a mobile app known for arming shoppers with the ability to scan products to find the best prices, is now giving consumers the ability to scan products they own so they can quickly put them up for sale. Read more »
In just a short time, modern tablets have become potent shopping tools that generate an outsize effect on online commerce. 2011 was the year that the tablet became an online retailer’s best friend as it emerged as the preferred device for many shoppers to make purchases. Read more »
EBay’s mobile business is growing so fast, it doesn’t even know how to predict what to expect months into the future. It’s now predicting it will do $8 billion in gross merchandise value and PayPal will do $7 billion in mobile payment volume in 2012. Read more »
Design store Fab.com has seen a surge in mobile use since launching mobile apps in October, with 30 percent of traffic now coming in via mobile. But more impressive is the fact that mobile visitors are generating twice as much revenue than visitors to Fab’s website. Read more »
One of the interesting shopping trends this year the emergence of mobile devices helping front-load more online holiday sales, as shoppers aren’t waiting for those two days to kick off their spending. It’s another way in which mobile is redefining holiday shopping. Read more »
With Black Friday just around the corner, your iPhone might be your greatest weapon for getting the best deals around. Just be sure you download these apps, and remember not to literally crash through doors, regardless of what retailer marketing says they’d like you to do. Read more »
Mobile shopping reward app Shopkick is realizing its full potential by tying into Visa’s payment processing network, helping close the loop on transactions and providing new incentives for users to make purchases. Users will now get rewarded not just for visiting a store but buying products. Read more »
Mobile users are increasingly getting used to buying products with their smartphones and tablets. But it’s not just smaller transactions. New studies show that users are getting comfortable with bigger purchases. The most expensive thing that respondents said they paid for on average cost $274. Read more »
RedLaser and ShopSavvy have been helpful in letting smartphone users compare prices and decide if the product they’re seeing in-store can be found for cheaper. Now, those apps are letting people not only find better deals but also immediately buy them right through their apps. Read more »
The emergence of the smartphone is changing consumer behavior in many ways. And this holiday season we are going to see smartphones play a bigger role in how we shop. Thanks to smart apps and smartphones, we are seeing the rise of the smart buyer. Read more »
PayPal said consumers aren’t going to wait until Black Friday to get their shopping started. They’ll begin their gift hunting the day before on Thanksgiving using a mobile device. PayPal said this couch commerce will be the first holiday shopping spike this year. Read more »
If you are or have ever been a college student, then you probably know that textbooks are the biggest racket going. Amazon Student, a new official iPhone app put out by Amazon.com, should help you find better prices than you would at your school bookstore. Read more »
Shopkick, a location-based deals and reward shopping app, is going local, offering merchants free hardware that integrates with its loyalty service. In a deal with Shopkick investor Citi, the company is offering free installation of Shopkick signal boxes at 1,000 stores owned by local merchants. Read more »
Thanks to bigger selection, convenient return policy and addition of digital goods, Amazon is quickly sucking up more of our spending dollars. No it is not just me talking — data shows a sharp jump in per account spending and it is only the beginning. Bezos FTW! Read more »
Shopkick is taking its audio check-in technology to television in a new deal with the CW that will allow Shopkick users to unlock deals when they use their app during commercials. The partnership shows how Shopkick can help brands connect their broadcast commercials to local transactions. Read more »
Visa has been working with the Gap on a campaign that provides discounts and promotions via text message when users make certain transactions on their Visa card. The program shows how mobile offers and discounts are incorporating more intelligence, which will be key for success. Read more »
If Priceline can ride its “name your price” model to a $22 billion market cap, can it work in the mobile local shopping market? That’s the question small start-up Spreezio is trying to answer with its app MAKEaDeal, which recently launched as a $2.99 iPhone app. Read more »
Android users have had Google Shopper for over a year now. Google finally decided to port the app over to iOS, and it became available in the App Store yesterday. We took it out for a spin to see how it performs in the real world. Read more »
Two new data points from eBay and Scanbuy about the growth of mobile shopping suggest where things are ultimately headed: Deal-hungry users are increasingly going to put pressure on retailers, both online and offline, to change prices in real time to satisfy these more savvy buyers. Read more »
The iPhone and mobile shopping apps play a big role in holiday shopping, it turns out. How big? Mobile advertising network Moblix gives a good idea with its monthly infographic for December. The most impressive number? iPhone shopping app usage growth when compared to last year. Read more »
Mobile will play a bigger role than ever during the U.S. holiday season, according to IDC, helping to drive $127 billion in sales. So it’s crucial that retailers tackle a few key challenges to effectively target consumers on their ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Appcelerator, which makes the Titanium mobile development platform, is working with PayPal to enable a potential deluge of mobile commerce apps from merchants looking to connect with smartphone savvy customers. The new product, called Titanium+Commerce, will enable many of the hottest ideas in mobile shopping. Read more »
