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 »
Target will sell electronics products endorsed by the editors of Wired in stores and online. Selections include the Square credit card reader, Fitbit and Belkin WeMo. Target also has an editorial partnership with CNET. Read more »
Many of the biggest stories in the connected consumer space occurred mostly offstage in 2012, from Apple’s new media services to policymakers in Washington. Overall, the past 12 months have laid important groundwork for significant advances in the connected consumer space. The year 2013 should be eventful. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Walmart has announced that it will stop selling Kindles in its stores and on its website, suggesting that as it beefs up its own e-commerce strategy it does not want to turn sales over to a competitor. Target also stopped carrying Kindles in May. Read more »
Target and Best Buy are joining Sprint in offering $20 to $50 discounts on iPhones with two-year contracts. Sales on current and older devices is yet another sign pointing to new models being around the corner. Apple is reportedly matching some of these discounts. Read more »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
In an effort to make ebook gift-giving more spontaneous and fun, Los Angeles-based startup Livrada is partnering with Target to sell gift cards for bestselling ebook titles like “50 Shades of Grey” and “Gone Girl” in the chain’s 1,771 stores nationwide. Read more at paidContent »
A comScore study of consumer behavior following exposure to marketing messages on Facebook shows that both fans and friends of fans are more likely to buy things after they see such messages, data that Facebook badly needs to prove the value of its social platform. Read more »
According to a memo obtained by The Verge, Target will stop carrying Kindles in its stores or on its website after Mother’s Day. Read more »
A Colorado man says Apple’s smart cover for the new iPad and the iPad 2 violate his 2005 patent for a “Portable Computer Case.” Read more at paidContent »
Websites for women are a paradox in the media industry. Despite being among the most successful properties on the Web, they are rarely mentioned in the never-ending discussions about how to make money from online content.
Sugar Inc. is a case in point. Read more at paidContent »
Smartphones long ago lost their hoity-toity status as the toys of the technological elite, but in the last few years they have been moving down to the lower-rungs of the mobile market ladder. Smartphones accounted for 29 percent of all prepaid device sales in 2011. Read more »
Key to understanding big data is to move beyond simply examining the technology for data storage and analytics engines. Organizations preparing for a data-centric economy should also examine the roles of data quality, data obesity and data markets in the future of modern enterprises. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Big data now touches everything from enterprises to smart-meter startups, while Hadoop is fast becoming the leading tool to analyze that data, and debates around privacy abound. GigaOM Pro analysts offer insights on what to consider when it comes to big data decisions for your business. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Although some believe the death of brick-and-mortar retail is inevitable, Mark Sigal, CPO of Unicorn Labs, thinks we all have a vested interest in seeing the industry reboot itself for the modern age. He outlines three paths for physical retail stores to avoid extinction here. Read more »
Target will soon offer store-within-a-store-type setups in 25 of its locations, the company revealed during a presentation on Thursday. The move backs up a report from last week that suggested Apple may be extending its partnership with the U.S. retail chain. Read more »
The effort to figure out the biggest online shopping day of the year is still in flux, with Thanksgiving so far seeing the peak traffic, according to Akamai. Will this year be the one where turkey day beats out Cyber Monday? Stay tuned. Read more »
Roku just announced a significant new retail parter: Target will sell the company’s media streaming boxes in its stores nationwide. The partnership follows similar deals with Best Buy and Walmart, and could help Roku sell three million boxes by the end of the year. Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile payments — payments initiated by a phone for a transaction at a physical point of sale or online — will total over $750 billion worldwide by 2015, and many predict they will soon begin to replace a typical credit card transaction. This report analyzes and forecasts the mobile payments industry, from its current technologies to the companies implementing them and the trends we can expect in the coming months. Much of the near-term growth of mobile payments will be driven by near-field communication (NFC) technology, but QR and 2D bar codes, mobile POS systems and SMS transactions are also important platforms for companies to consider when creating business models and strategies. Meanwhile, services from the likes of MasterCard, Nokia, Amazon and Google offer examples for others to follow and clues into the future of the industry. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Research in Motion, T-Mobile, Zong and Groupon. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The crowded e-book market has just squeezed in room for one more contender, as iriver has created an eInk reader that works with the Google Books store. Priced at $139.99 and available from Target, the iriver Story HD can access 3 million free titles plus various paid content. 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 »
The iPad will be appearing alongside its predecessor the iPod touch at many more locations starting today. Adding to its retail presence in the U.S. at Apple Stores and Best Buy, the iPad is now available at Target retail locations, and online at Amazon. Read more »
Target will become the neighborhood electronic store with the addition of six models of the Apple iPad in stores. The models will start at $499 and will be joining the Kindle at the nation’s second largest discount chain. Target shoppers can get them at a discount. Read more »
Facebook’s virtual currency is making its way into the real world, in a deal announced today with Target. The retail chain will become the first brick-and-mortar retailer to carry Facebook Credits, which will be available via gift cards at the company’s 1,750 outlets starting Sept. 5. Read more »
The second quarter of 2010 belonged to the little guys and the new guys. Almost across the board, from processors to virtualization to cloud services, relatively small vendors and startups had the market cornered on innovation and mindshare. And where there’s tinder in the forms of customer demand, products, funding and a greater societal movement toward environmentalism, something is bound to catch fire. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
DemandTec, a retail forecasting software provider, has convinced Target Corp. to hand over even more of its shopping data in order to better set prices and forecast demand. But DemandTec has needs of its own — partners that can help it filter unstructured social data. Read more »
Retail giant Target will be selling the Amazon Kindle in stores soon. The Kindle will initially be available in Minneapolis and stores in Florida, to be followed with more Target outlets selling the Kindle. The restricted roll-out may be a test to gauge interest. Read more »
New figures from Compete.com indicate smartphone owners are more receptive to mobile coupons than to other types of pitches on their phones. The report comes on the heels of a new campaign from Target to deliver scannable discounts directly to consumers’ phones. Read more »
If your wallet is about to explode like George Costanza’s did, take any Target Gift Cards out of it. Target now offers Mobile GiftCards with a scannable barcode right on your phone to pay for purchases. Read more »
