August 19, 2010
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Posted by
Melany Gallant ·
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General knowledge about near fields communications (NFC), a technology used to power mobile payments, is not exactly mainstream – most consumers using mobile devices haven’t even heard of NFC even if a few of them do use their mobile phones to make purchases.
NFC technology makes it simple for consumers to use their mobile devices to perform simple credit transactions or to pass information between two gadgets. The technology is currently enabled on some mobile devices, but not all. Certainly, mobile payments adoption has not yet reached a level where it could be called mainstream.
No...
August 19, 2010
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Posted by
Wanda Cadigan ·
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I admit I’m turning into a little bit of a Groupon groupie. Each morning I eagerly check my inbox to find out the daily deal in my area. Groupon is a group-buying site that is reportedly valued now at $1 billion. The concept is simple, if a minimum number of people sign up for the daily deal then they will receive the discount. Typically the deals are locally-based offers from small to medium size businesses. And hey, who doesn’t like a great deal on a mani-pedi at the local spa? But today’s offer was far from a local deal, but a unique offer from Gap - $25 for $50 worth of merchandise at ...
August 17, 2010
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Posted by
Wanda Cadigan ·
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I’ve written here before about growth of location-based services, specifically the current LBS darling foursquare. Foursquare is a location-based social network that helps you connect with friends using GPS via your mobile device. For merchants this type of location-based service has tremendous potential for increasing customer loyalty. A simple tap on an iPhone can associate a person with a local business thereby broadcasting buying intentions to their social network, as well as allowing you to deliver targeted offers.
While many have written about the potential of location-based services...
August 12, 2010
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Posted by
Melany Gallant ·
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Earlier this month, Visa launched Rightcliq, a free online shopping tool designed to make e-commerce more social and convenient for consumers. Rightcliq offers users a centralized online location to store and share products of interest and to manage and track purchases.
By creating a seamless shopping experience across the entire purchasing process, it would seem Visa’s goal is to make Rightcliq a social commerce destination that benefits consumers and online retailers.
How Rightcliq works
Currently available to U.S. consumers only, Rightcliq enables users to create visual wish lists ...
August 4, 2010
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Posted by
Melany Gallant ·
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The golden rule for getting men to shop for clothes online? Make it as effortless as possible.
A recent article by WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal) indicates high end fashion websites want to get more men shopping online. Why? Quite simply, men shop online less often than women but tend to spend more.
WSJ.com reports,
Affluent men, those with income levels in the top 20% of U.S. households, spent an average of $3,970 on Internet purchases during the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with $1,958 for women, according to Unity Marketing.
When it comes to shopping in brick and mortar stores,...
August 2, 2010
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Posted by
Wanda Cadigan ·
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There are reports that pretty soon your smartphone could double as your wallet supporting payments via smartphone swipes in front of contactless card readers. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are said to be partnering with Discover Financial Services, makers of Discover Card, and Barclays PLC, a global retail banking company, to test the concept in stores. While there have been other mobile payment initiatives – Starbucks enables some customers to pay with their iPhones at select stores, and MasterCard has the MasterCard PayPass- this carrier-backed mobile payment system could serve as a major ...
July 28, 2010
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Posted by
Cam Stevenson ·
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In the lull before starting full development on the next iteration of CommerceLive, I thought it would be useful to share some observations I've gathered over the course of the development process.
I'm also going to tie this in with my observations from the Internet Retailer conference last month (cleverly covering off a request from our Marketing folks).
My general, high level starting assertion is that the e-commerce domain is far more complicated (in all respects) than any other technology area (I'm comparing it to other areas that I've been deeply involved in over the course of my car...
July 27, 2010
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Posted by
Wanda Cadigan ·
1 Comment·
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When you think about the online gaming community, you may think about the traditional demographic of young males playing Xbox or PlayStation. However there is a new growing segment that is making big brands take notice – the ‘casual’ player. Social gaming is the fastest-growing segment in the video game business right now, its growth spurred on no doubt by popularity of social networking sites. Even as retail video game sales have declined over the past year, a growing number of people have been playing, and spending money on, social and casual games on the Internet and mobile phones. Whil...
July 26, 2010
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Posted by
Caroline Zenss ·
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You may think that I get that question quite often. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time it was brought up by anyone in my work environment.
Wikipedia states that "User eXperience (UX) refers to the interaction of a person with a system, including their actions and perceptions, i.e., what the person wants to do, what they actually do and their feelings about using a product, a service, (…) or a combination of them."
Let's try to see how this definition would translate into e-commerce. Does User Experience cover features or look & feel ? Is it the satisfaction ...
July 23, 2010
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Posted by
Melany Gallant ·
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Some fashion magazines are using multi-media and mobile technologies to create additional opportunities to help advertisers reach consumers via Web and mobile platforms. According to a recent article by Lauren Indvik at Mashable.com, fashion magazines lost nearly a quarter of their ad pages in 2009. In response, some fashion magazines are looking to use Web and mobile offerings to update their business model, making it more relevant to how advertisers want to reach consumers.
Indvik provides some great examples of how some leading fashion magazines are embracing digital offerings to attrac...
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