Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0032 Target's In-store Shopping and Mobile

Quick one for you but an important one and a good read.

Target is really working hard to use mobile to maximize the shopping experience while in-store.  Read more here to find out how:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/target-enhances-in-store-mobile-experience-with-weekly-ads-beta-shopping-list

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0031 ISIS vs. Merchants

Mobile Payments.

ISIS and NFC is in the news again with the American Express and Chase deal.  I've written about this one before and see a looming war between ISIS and MCX.  Which will win the hearts and minds of consumers?
The expected September 10 announcement by Apple of the new iPhone will be news for one thing: NFC.  Will it be included in the new iPhone or not?  If it is the momentum gathering for ISIS will continue.  If not, one battle in the war will be over in favor of MCX

Here is another analysis on the subject well worth your reading:

http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/218301/Will-Isis-NFC-bet-force-merchants-hands-Analysis

Here is a snippet from near the end of the article:

Walmart has partnered with other big box retailers such as Target and Best Buy to offer its own mobile commerce service, MCX, which is unlikely to use NFC because of resistance by U.S. merchants to invest in POS upgrades that include NFC. Merchants already know they will have to upgrade their POS systems by 2015 to accommodate EMV standards. EMV standards are new authentication specifications announced by Visa, MasterCard and American Express to further reduce fraud. The prospect of merchants having to upgrade their POS systems twice in a short time period represents a barrier to NFC adoption.

With recent studies suggesting that more than 50 percent of smartphones in the U.S. may be NFC-enabled by the end of 2014, it seems that Isis is betting on issuers and cardholders driving NFC adoption at the point of interaction with the merchants. It remains to be seen if the merchants will eventually give in.

Here is my previous blog entry:

ISIS to Launch Nationwide

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**  More good reading from the Gemalto perspective here:

http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/mobile/mobile-payments/2013/behind-the-value-propositions-nfc-vs-cloud-proximity-payments/

Have a great Labor Day weekend 2013!

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0030 Microsoft

If you haven't heard about the planned departure of Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, by now you aren't following the daily news.  12 months or so until his departure and the search begins.

This ties in with the larger question looming about the future of Microsoft, something I've written about a bit in this blog (just search the labels for "Microsoft" and you'll see all entries tagged as such).  This latest piece on Bloomberg recommends an eventual breakup in to smaller units.

Here is a bit from the reading:

Steve Ballmer’s announcement last week of his retirement from Microsoft Corp. after 13 years at the helm leaves some puzzling questions for his successor -- about Microsoft’s epic decline, its uncertain future and the ultimate purpose of a public company. Resolving them may well prove impossible. And that’s OK.

...

All of which makes Microsoft look like the embodiment of Clayton Christensen’s “innovator’s dilemma,” in which profitable companies fight so hard to protect their established products that they fail to respond to innovations by smaller and nimbler competitors. To react more aggressively, Ballmer would’ve risked disrupting the parts of Microsoft that were still making a lot of money -- and will be for some time. It’s hard to blame him for resisting. Yet he leaves his successor in an unenviable position.

Here is the entire article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/microsoft-s-useful-life-may-be-near-its-end.html

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Tablet eCommerce Crushing Smart Phone mCommerce

New research by MarketLive, an eCommerce platform provider, detailed in Mobile Commerce Daily states online commerce on a tablet device is growing 8 times faster than on smart phone devices.

Here is the full article that writes up the research:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/tablets-reaffirm-commerce-might

Here is a bit from the article:

Tablets continue to drive significant gains in Web site traffic and ecommerce sales, with tablet traffic growing three times faster than smartphone traffic during the first half of 2013 and tablet revenue growing eight times faster, according to a report released today by MarketLive.

I've written about this before and fully expect to see this trend continue.  If you are in the business of building apps you have to know what platform relates to which services and build accordingly.  For retail merchants smart phone apps should focus on mCommerce only as a secondary concern, where tablet apps should focus on tCommerce first.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0029 Holiday Season Strategies

Google Research is out with another good read.  While their research always seems to point the reader to greater use and inclusion of online search engines (such as Google) the reading is always informative.

http://www.google.com/think/articles/3-strategies-to-prepare-for-the-holidays.html

Here is a snippet from this one:

You could light a lot of menorahs and Christmas trees with the energy that shoppers will expend hunting for the perfect gifts this holiday season. It’s why the season accounts for as much as 40% of annual retail sales, according to the National Retail Federation. With so much at stake, now is the time for retailers to make preparations for a successful holiday sales season. Here are three areas you should be focusing on beginning in September, based on recent shopper surveys and 2012 holiday sales trends.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0028 mCoupons, Loyalty, and Digital Wallets

Do you know what a Digital Wallet is?

The popular opinion seems to indicate this has to do with payments using your mobile phone.  While this is true it is only part of the story.  Gift cards can be enabled in a wallet.  Boarding passes.  Tickets to events.  More.  The focus of many efforts to date, in the mobile wallet space, has been on payments.  But that doesn't seem to really be the best area of focus.

Mobile coupons, or mCoupons, and loyalty are the key.

This article on Mobile Commerce Daily provides some incite in to the current state of affair in this area:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/retailers-lag-on-coupon-loyalty-opportunities-with-mobile-wallets-report

That entry references a study by Vibes:

http://www.vibes.com/

Here is a snippet:

Although mobile wallets do present a big opportunity for retailers, only 19 percent of consumers surveyed said they have noticed a retailer implementing offers and loyalty programs using the technology, according to a new report from Vibes today.

Food for thought.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0027 Mobile Payments

Two entries today in the "Best Reading" category.

I find Karen Webster to be quite well informed in the arena of payments generally and this entry is a good one.

http://www.pymnts.com/commentary/six-forces-that-should-shape-your-2014-payments-plans/

Here is a short bit from her entry, emphasis added by me:

"...this isn’t payments as usual anymore and even payments the way everyone thought it would be even two or three years ago. There are six forces that will fundamentally reshape the way this sector operates over the next five to 10 years. You can bet all of the soft shell crabs in Maryland and salt water taffy at the Jersey Shore that these six forces will impact each and every player in this space in some way. And, there are only two outcomes: you can lead the creative destruction that these forces imply, or sit back and be the one who is creatively destroyed."

Are you going to be a leader or a follower?  Is following really even an option?

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0026 Nielsen on Mobile Usage

The Nielsen company is joining the list of companies studying usage behavior between devices.  The focus of this study is on the differences between tablets and smart phones.

http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2013/a-mobile-shoppers-journey--from-the-couch-to-the-store--and-back.html

Good data in there overall.

The "Store Locator" functionality is revealing and helps distinguish between truly mobile devices such as smart phones and non-mobile devices (from a usage standpoint) such as tablets.

70% of smart phone users have used store locator functionality.  Only 41% of tablet users have done so.

The location is interesting.  56% of the store locator searches by smart phone users was during a commute and only 24% were at home.  This contrasts with tablet users: only 7% while commuting and 84% at home.  Which one truly a mobile device?

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

News of the Day - Wal-Mart and Facebook

In these "News of the Day" entries I try to capture the biggest news items that are the most relevant to readers of the Thagent blog.  Today we have two significant pieces of news:

Wal-Mart's eCommerce offering rose 30% in the first half of 2013

http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/08/15/wal-marts-online-sales-increase-30-first-half-2013

Facebook is entering the mPayment space:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/206914/facebook-getting-into-m-payments-sure-pile-on.html#axzz2c9OQKKxs

Interesting news in both cases.  Wal-Mart wants to sell all things to all people.  They are using online commerce, eCommerce, to get there and it is having success.

Facebook already has a fairly ubiquitous mobile login process, login through Facebook, and now they want to tie mobile payments to that same concept.  Interesting.  It could work well for many people, but what about non-Facebook users and what about mobile acceptance?

Have a great weekend,

J.W. Gant

News of the Day - Smart Phone Sales

If we view the market share of smart phones as a horse race we have four horses running: Android, Apple, Blackberry (previously R.I.M.), and Microsoft Windows Phone.

The battle for first place started with Apple way out front with little competition.  Android has been on a steady and rapid rise and now holds the front position globally with about 72% share and in the United States passing the 50% mark last year.

More interesting is the battle for third place.  Blackberry has made what appears to be their final push to regain momentum with the release of Blackberry 10 in January of this year.  The numbers are in and Blackberry is fading to the back of the pack.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-windows-phone-overtakes-blackberry-but-android-dominates-smartphones-utterly-7000019381/

Windows Phone has taken over third place and is seeing robust sales growth, though that still leaves it trailing very far behind Apple and Android.

Here is a view from the article with the data sourced from Gartner for Q2 2013:

Android is way out in front, Apple's share continues to erode, Microsoft is seeing double-digit growth and Blackberry is moving towards the dustbin of oblivion.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**

Digital Trends .com is getting in to the act and using the popularity of the HBO series "Game of Thrones" to help send the message (by the way Game of Thrones is well worth watching if you haven't joined in yet, and worth reading as well).

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/smartphone-sales-for-q2-2013/

Good imagery for a story about smart phones.

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0025 Geo-Conquesting

Geofencing is not a particularly new concept.  How it is being used is causing a bit of a stir this week, however, so lets take a minute to review.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo-fence

The Wikipedia entry states:

A geo-fence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area.

A couple of options are available using hardware to send a signal covering a particular space.  A central point can generate a radiated fencing signal.  Or a custom area can be defined.  Both are illustrated in the image below.  As a user with a device capable of GPS triggers enters the area the designated event is triggered.

So what is geo-conquest?

What if a company used geo-fencing to tag a competitor's area with information that would drive possible customers away from that site and towards their own locations?  Sound science fiction?  Hardly.  Outback Steakhouse has recently engaged in a campaign to perform exactly that way and the results were very strong.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/15950.html

Here is a snippet from the article:

Outback was looking to increase intent to dine for lunch and dinner. At the same time, the chain wanted to drive traffic into restaurant locations from both loyal customers and those considering other casual dining restaurants.

To achieve these goals, Outback worked with xAd to put a 10-mile geo-fence around Outback Steakhouse locations and a five-mile geo-fence around other casual dining locations, which is known as geo-conquesting.

This does seem to beg the question, are we engaged in a marketing arms race?  Is this a "game theory" question where the initial benefit is outweighed once your opposition begins using the same methods?  For now the results are definitive.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Tablets and How People Use Them

I've written extensively about the miss-categorization of tablets as "mobile" devices.  If these aren't truly mobile devices then how are people using them?

CMO.com has some data on this.

http://www.cmo.com/content/cmo-com/home/articles/2013/8/13/_15_must_know_stats_.html

The article is titled 15 Must Know Stats About Tablets.

Here is a snippet from the article:

Tablet devices have been officially proclaimed the "lean-back" device, and this means many new opportunities for engagement with consumers. While often compared to and even referred to as mobile devices, tablets aren't mobile at all. The majority of people aren't using them to shop in-store or get information on the go either. 

The truly interesting question is how do small form factor tablets, sometimes called "phablets" fit in to the usage data?  A reasonable assumption is the usage is a mix between what we are seeing from smart phone users and tablet users.  Until a study is done, however, we won't know how the mix plays out.  Meanwhile it is useful to study usage data for both smart phones and tablets.

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**

Flurry.com is out with a good study of iPhone vs. iPad usage.

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/99859/The-Who-What-and-When-of-iPhone-and-iPad-Usage

Lots of excellent information in there that helps us differentiate between truly mobile usage and tablet usage.  By extension we can assume mini-tablet usage is somewhere in between.

Apple Needs New Products in '13

Bad news follows bad news for Apple.

Found guilty of price fixing eBooks.

Profit margins are down on their flagship devices.

Sales are down at their Apple Stores.

Market share is dwindling.

The Nexus 7 simply destroys the iPad Mini in Reviews.

What gives?

Apple needs a new product.  They've set themselves up as needing a constant influx of brilliant new ideas.  Anything less is considered a failure.  Apple is becoming a victim of their own success.  However, they are also suffering from the Innovator's Dilemma where their focus is no longer on innovation but on harvesting from their market share advantages.  The result is their competitors become the innovative ones and the next market disruption will more likely come from a source other than Apple.

Apple needs new products.

The news making the round now is the expected September 10th announcement of the new iPhone.  This leak is almost certainly one of two things: (1) pure speculation, or (2) a leak directly from Apple to head off anxiety about the company's performance.  I'm betting the latter.

A few articles come together to paint a broader picture for Apple.  Some of it is good, some of it is bad.  The most troubling is this quote:

"Apple hasn't produced a single big product since Jobs passed. All of their current products are a legacy of the Jobs era. There's no indication that Apple can still innovate in a big way."

Here are the three articles.

The Next iPhone Better Wow Us
http://www.zdnet.com/word-from-the-street-the-next-iphone-better-wow-us-7000019243/

Apple's Identity Crisis Following the Loss of Jobs
http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/no-magic-no-apple-cupertinos-identity-crisis-in-the-fading-afterglow-of-jobs/

Apple Stores Seeing Declining Sales
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57598028-71/apple-store-now-an-apple-bore/

Will the reported "iWatch" be Apple's savior?  The low-end iPhone, the 5C??  Something has to happen.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0024 Multi-Screen Usage

Where do you use your phone and when?

What about a tablet?

A laptop?

A full-size personal computer?

Different time, different places, different "screens" or devices, and different goals seem to come together to craft behavior.  In your car driving down the interstate you are not likely to be using your smart phone to shop.  On your couch with your tablet in hand is a very different use case.

Google has researched this question, in early 2012, and with the recent announcement of the new Nexus 7 tablet and the pending release of a slew of 7" Windows 8 devices it seems like a good moment to think about this.  The research done in early 2012 precludes the November 2, 2012 Apple launch of the iPad Mini and the advent of the "phablet" world, not a phone not a tablet but both.  This research, therefore, can only start the conversation of screen usage but it is important nevertheless.

Here is the research paper:

http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/the-new-multi-screen-world-study.html

I hope you enjoy this research study as much as I did.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0023 Walmart Scan & Go

Walmart is at it again.  The new approaches, new technology, new functionality in their app, and more, keep rolling out week in and week out.  This is one retailer intent to be on the boat when it comes to in-store customer experience management through mobile.

Read this little snippet to see if it captures your interest:

Walmart continues to ramp up its mobile in-store Scan & Go program by giving users the ability to clip coupons by tapping their smartphones and having the savings automatically applied when they check out.

Personalized experience management through mobile enhancing the in-store experience.  Does that sound like a theme I've touched upon in this blog so far?

Yes.

Here is the whole article.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/walmart-boosts-scan-go-self-checkout-with-mobile-coupons

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant