Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0052 Amazon.com and Groceries

During the dot-com bubble of the early 2000's we saw a number of traditionally brick & mortar businesses attempt to bring the business to the internet.  A number of these were high profile busts.  A few made it.

Amazon.com is definitely a success story from this era.

Groceries online is not.

So what if Amazon.com started to handle groceries?  Bloomberg.com has the best article I've yet read on this move:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/would-you-buy-groceries-on-amazon-.html

Here is a snippet from the article:

“It’s a tricky business,” Merzbacher told me, “not to be entered into lightly.”

Of course, I’m never ready to count Amazon out: For one thing, it doesn't seem all that fixated on actually, y’know, making a profit; and for another, Jeff Bezos is a strategic genius with a relentless focus on flawless implementation. The pilot program in Seattle, Amazon Fresh, seems to be doing OK, and, according to the Wall Street Journal, it’s spurring add-on sales of other items.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0051 Apple's Planned Obsolescence

Planned Obsolescence

WikiPedia helps us define the concept: Planned_Obsolescence

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time. Planned obsolescence has potential benefits for a producer because to obtain continuing use of the product the consumer is under pressure to purchase again, whether from the same manufacturer (a replacement part or a newer model), or from a competitor who might also rely on planned obsolescence.

This is a topic I've given a fair amount of consideration to.  Apple appears to want to be seen as the premier brand and they certainly treat their customers that way.  Want in to the Apple ecosystem?  Better be willing to pay, pay a lot, and keep paying again and again and again.  Ergo: planned obsolescence.

A New York Times Magazine article states it more explicitly:

Why Apple Wants to Bust Your iPhone

That is an attention getting headline.  The content tells the story to match the attention:

why-apple-wants-to-bust-your-iphone

Here is a snippet from the article:

At first, I thought it was my imagination. Around the time the iPhone 5S and 5C were released, in September, I noticed that my sad old iPhone 4 was becoming a lot more sluggish. The battery was starting to run down much faster, too. But the same thing seemed to be happening to a lot of people who, like me, swear by their Apple products. When I called tech analysts, they said that the new operating system (iOS 7) being pushed out to existing users was making older models unbearably slow. Apple phone batteries, which have a finite number of charges in them to begin with, were drained by the new software. So I could pay Apple $79 to replace the battery, or perhaps spend 20 bucks more for an iPhone 5C. It seemed like Apple was sending me a not-so-subtle message to upgrade.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**

Several more good articles I want to link to.

First, a list of smart quotes for retailers:
http://risnews.edgl.com/retail-insight-blog/Smart-Quotes--Inside-the-Best-Minds-in-Retail89138

Second, the layout of grocery stores as exampled by one store in South Florida:
http://wlrn.org/post/how-south-florida-supermarkets-move-customers-through-their-stores

Last, how Kroger uses data on their customers:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2013/10/28/kroger-knows-your-shopping-patterns-better-than-you-do/

That last one is especially good.

Happy reading.

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0050 Misc

Two entries from today or the weekend are worth taking the time to read.

First up revolves around political campaigns, though we'll leave the politics out of it.  The Obama campaign is well known to have been at the technological forefront during both the 2008 and the 2012 campaigns.  Some of the details have been emerging over time and some of it is directly applicable to retail technology efforts.

The folks at Econsultancy have some lessons learned for us from the latest campaign that makes for worthy reading:

seven-lessons-obama-s-digital-team-learned-from-a-b-testing-emails

Here is a snippet from that article:

In case you’re a few years behind the times, you will be aware that Obama’s re-election campaign was a success.

But what is less well known is the detail of the testing process behind the email strategy that helped to raise more than $500m in online donations.

Next up is the old goodie known as the weekly circular and some efforts to change the landscape of this marketing effort:

retale-takes-a-stab-at-mobilizing-retail-circulars

Mobilization of the weekly circular?  Interesting.  Here is a bit from that article:

Bonial International Group today has launched a mobile application called Retale to help United States retailers deliver the traditional circular in a new format.

A number of other organizations such as the Associated Press have already tried to put out a centralized mobile circular app for retailers, but Retale is confident that it has created the winning solution. Bonial International Group has already launched similar apps in Germany, France, Russia, Spain and Brazil, and it has  accumulated more than 500 European retailers already.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**

BusinessWeek.com has a piece on the "Retale" app spoken to above.

the-surprisingly-simple-retail-app-that-could-juice-holiday-revenue

Looks like it is making waves.

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0049 Digital Marketing

Another excellent read by the folks at Econsultancy.  This article speaks to interesting digital marketing stats.

What is "Digital Marketing"??

The following is taken from the WikiPedia entry:

Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, cellphones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers and other business partners. Internet Marketing is a major component of digital marketing.

Here is a link to the article:

10-interesting-digital-marketing-stats-weve-seen-this-week

Here is one of the ten from the article:

John Lewis predicts a mobile Christmas

• John Lewis has predicted that this year will be the UK’s first ‘mobile Christmas’ with traffic from mobile phones and tablets overtaking that from desktops for the first time on Christmas Day itself.

• Mobile made up almost 50% of all traffic to johnlewis.com on 25 December 2012, with the peak hour being 9pm.

• The busiest day on mobile last year was 26 December, with over 920,000 visits. Over 1m visits are estimated for this Boxing Day which will be a new record for mobile.

• Mobile now accounts for over 40% of traffic to johnlewis.com and traffic is up over 115% year on year.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**

Here is a great example of how digital is transforming marketing:
cvs-unveils-personalized-circulars

Here is a snippet from that article:

CVS/pharmacy is giving that venerable but perhaps a bit tired marketing channel -- the weekly circular -- a digital makeover. It includes personalized promotions focused on products of interest to consumers.


Have a great weekend.

New Mobile Loyalty for Dunkin Donuts

Digital marketing, digital loyalty, and the mobile internet.  These are all coming together in the efforts being slowly launched by Dunkin Donuts through their mobile loyalty program.

If that image isn't too distracting for you here is a snippet from the article:

The new, mobile-friendly program offers a simplified rewards system, with a platform that updates members' rewards balances in real time.

Guests will earn five points for every dollar they spend on qualifying purchases when they pay using an enrolled Dunkin’ Donuts card, either plastic or via the Dunkin’ mobile app. Once members accrue 200 points, they receive a coupon for a free medium beverage of their choice. 

To read the full article click here:

dunkin-starts-rolling-out-enhanced-loyalty-program

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0048 Misc

I have three items to share today.  Completely unrelated but interesting nevertheless.

First up is a great view by Econsultancy in to how to use Twitter for competitive analysis:

http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/63651-a-six-step-guide-to-using-twitter-for-competitor-analysis

Next is a view of what Staples is doing in mobile to provide a seamless experience between platforms:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/staples-redesigns-mobile-site-for-cross-channel-shopping

Finally, how the payment company LevelUp is seeing their SDK work for retail and QSR businesses interested in incorporating payment & mobile loyalty in to their apps:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/dunn-bros-coffee-caffeinates-loyalty-with-mobile-payments-app

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

What is MCX?

Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX)

What is it?

I'll look to several publicly available sources to describe this effort.

A visit to the official website is informative, especially to view the number of merchant brands currently signed up:

http://www.mcx.com/

Here is the line on that site describing what MCX is:

Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) was created by a group of the nation's leading merchants with a singular purpose:  offering consumers a customer-focused, versatile and seamlessly integrated mobile-commerce platform.

Development of the mobile application is underway, with an initial focus on a flexible solution that will offer merchants a customizable platform with the features and functionality needed to best meet consumers' needs. The application will be available through virtually any smartphone.

Which brands are on-board this effort?  Something like 45 brands from over 30 merchants representing more than $1 trillion (with a "T") in annual sales.  Wow.  Notice the verticals represented in this.  Restaurants, quick service, gasoline, technology retail, grocery, etc.  This is a huge effort.

I'll take up a moment to post some public timelines:

• March 2, 2012 - It was reported that Target and Wal-Mart had been working "for some time" on a mobile payments project
• August 15, 2012, MCX was announced and had merchants with $1UST already signed up
• July 18, 2013 the CEO, Dekkers Davidson, was announced for MCX

Here is a write-up by Mobile Commerce Daily on the effort:

mcx-makes-bid-to-win-over-small-merchants-as-rollout-date-nears

Here is one more view that should help:

mcx-and-the-giant-payments-networks

If you've been reading my blog and have seen posts on mobile payments, ISIS, MCX, etc. and haven't quite known what MCX is this post should help.  I've tagged this post with a couple labels.  You can click on them, below, and locate all other posts in my blog related to that tag.

Have a great week,

J.W. Gant