Just the other week at IR’s 2010 Mobile Commerce Conference in Chicago, FastPivot had the pleasure of meeting many other mobile commerce industry experts. Among those were Itay Sharfi,Portfolio Manager at Nokia & Organizer at Mobile Monday Boston, who has since discussed mobile commerce in email exchanges with FastPivot in such a manner that not sharing it would be a dis-service. Below is his quote (publicized with his permission) foretelling a global trend that is rapidly gaining momentum among those with smartphones:
“Today, mobile commerce is mostly desktop commerce on a smaller device. Mobile commerce will not be a subset of desktop commerce in the future. With third of the Indian consumers already desiring a bar-code scanner for shopping comparison the only question is: when and how it will happen.‚Äù
“1 in 2 Americans will have a smartphone by Christmas 2011”
Take a minute to browse for smart phone “bar code scanner apps” …at Android’s “Market”, a quick search on “bar code scanner” produces a long list of apps like: Bar code scanner, shopSavvy Barcode Scanner, The Coupons App, Scanner for Netflix, IxMAT Barcode Scanner, Bluetooth Barcode Scanner, ScanLife Barcode Reader and many more.
These barcode scanning apps are all tools that can be used to scan barcoded price tags in bricks and mortar stores. Then the app. will automatically compare that product’s price (using the uploaded barcode) with the same products listed in internet stores. The shopper then inspects the product on site and orders the cheaper one online via their mobile smart phone (at the bricks & mortar’s expense). Bricks and mortar merchants who have no clue that this is happening may wonder why there’s so much activity in their stores while sales simultaneously decrease.
Merchants who know the deal realize that comparison shopping isn’t just an ecommerce thing. In fact, shoppers are using their smart phones to compare prices everywhere (they also check merchant service & product quality reviews from their smart phones before purchasing) and then buying from the best source. It’s an extremely competitive world out there, so now with smartphones on the rise, prices must be more competitive than ever.
