San Francisco Parking Auction Apps

Sometimes it amazes me how quickly things can move.

I'm in mobile in a big way and mobile payments as well.  I've been quite interested in seeing big city parking turn over to mobile payments.  Why not?  Seems perfect right?

Yes, it can be.

On a recent trip to San Francisco I had a chat with a brilliant young friend of mine, Derek Gillaspy, on his parking woes.  He had just driven back in to the city from S.F.O. and was quite concerned how long it was going to take him to locate a parking spot over by the Coit Tower area.  Yeap.  Quite a problem I'm sure.

Here is a selfie at some of the redwoods downtown:

What I wasn't prepared for was the recent piece on Yahoo about the apps in San Francisco for auctioning traffic spots.

Wow.

Here is the article:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/san-francisco-government-cracks-down-on-parking-apps-89756826544.html?src=rss

Here is a snippet from that piece:

San Francisco’s new crackdown on a mobile app that allows people to auction off their public parking spots marks yet another clash between innovative technologies and regulators trying to maintain law and order, public safety and a sense of social decorum.

The app, called Monkey Parking, allows a driver who scores a notoriously hard-to-get San Francisco parking spot to sell it for $5, $10, even $20 and then hang out there until the buyer arrives to take his place.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0128 Misc

Travel to and from San Francisco last week limited my availability to provide comment.  I'm going to catch up with the 4 stories that most captured my interest.

First is the brand crisis ISIS is facing thanks to the group in Iraq with the same name.  Does this spell trouble or what?

http://www.paymentssource.com/news/isis-faces-a-branding-crisis-3018333-1.html

Next is the rumor that Microsoft will use the Lumia name instead of Surface, something this writer mentioned at the time of the release of the Surface Pro 3.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-rumored-to-be-planning-to-replace-surface-branding-with-lumia-7000031028/

A good little article that talks about disruption in retail and some simple thoughts on how to approach the phenomenon.

http://chainstoreage.com/article/three-ways-retailers-can-capitalize-digital-disruptions

Finally, a short piece on the accelerating pace of mobile payments.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-pay-seen-trailing-cards-despite-dominance-over-desktop

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0127 Mobile First

Excellent read from HuffingtonPost.com yesterday:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-ask/why-retailers-must-embrac_b_5512239.html

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Mobile has fundamentally changed consumer expectations. Already, 65 percent of online consumers use their smartphones in stores. Among those under the age of 34 years, more than half use this device to research products online while browsing the aisles.

Consumers have come to depend on the immediacy that mobile offers, be it access to their grocery list on their device, or the ability to buy groceries while waiting for the bus, knowing they can be delivered home later. This is the mobile mind shift - the expectation that you can get what you want in your immediate context and moment of need.

For retailers, the new customer battlefield is in these mobile moments. Those brands that are there for their customers in the moment of need will be loved; those that aren't will lose business.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple iWatch News

You can't visit a news website today without finding something about the Apple iWatch news.  Here is Bloomberg:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-20/apples-smartwatch-plans-coming-into-view#r=tec-ls

Here is CNBC:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101776202

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Google Wallet Instant Buy

Google has made available its 'Instant Buy' solution for iOS to enable speedy online checkout:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/eat24-exec-google-wallet-instant-buy-for-ios-apps-a-game-changer

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Google Wallet’s streamlined mobile checkout solution Instant Buy is now available on iOS applications for the first time, a development early adopters such as Eat24 say could finally make Google Wallet a bigger focus for consumers.

Despite the fact that Google’s digital wallet has so far struggled to catch on with consumers and merchants, the technology company continues to bring out new features and functionality with the hope that something will catch on with mobile users. Instant Buy, which was introduced earlier this year for Android apps and the mobile Web, makes checking out from a mobile device easier, with the process often taking as few as two clicks.

This has become a hyper-competitive space recently.  MasterPass, PayPal, Amazon, Google, and Apple may join in with their 800 million registered iTunes accounts.

This is one form of mobile payments that is proving to see good consumer adoption.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0126 The Retailers Strike Back

Retailers for years now have appeared to be the slow, lumbering, behemoths no longer equiped for the day.  Shackled to their hugely expensive brick & mortar stores they will be too slow to adapt and will die off.

Are we underestimating them?

Lowe's has created a virtual reality room, in the store, through a custom tablet, that allows consumers to visualize what their home project will look like.  Amazing.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/lowes-strives-for-competitive-advantage-with-life-size-augmented-reality-experience

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Lowe’s stores in Toronto will be the first to feature the Lowe’s Holoroom, an immersive experience enabling shoppers to see how products will look in their bathroom using augmented reality and a specially designed tablet.

The Holoroom is billed by the retailer as a “home improvement simulator” that uses 3D and augmented reality technologies to create the life-size experience designed to help consumers envision how certain products would look in their homes. The Holoroom, which is the first concept to come out of the Lowe’s Innovation Labs, was previewed this week at the Exponential Finance conference in New York.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0125 Walmart and Loyalty?

What is the best way to enact a loyalty program at a retail establishment?  Don't let the consumer ever know they are signing up for it.

Publix, the Florida-based grocer, knows this and uses phone numbers as a virtual loyalty program without ever enrolling people.  Walmart may have found an even better way to do this without any form of overt opt-in by the consumer.  They do one thing and see tangible benefits for it, and Walmart benefits by establishing a virtual loyalty program without the silly plastic card.

That is the take Advertising Age has taken on Walmart's latest digital offering.

http://adage.com/article/dataworks/walmart-rivals-discounts-fuel-loyalty-program/293596/

Here is a snippet from the article:

Walmart is using a new digital extension of its longstanding guarantee to match competitors' advertised prices to address a question that's dogged it for years: How can it launch a loyalty program without the promotional deals it's long shunned as part of its everyday-low-price philosophy?

The answer: Walmart is essentially using rivals' discounts to fuel its own loyalty program and get individual shopper data into its database.

Yet again I would have never found this article without the excellent 'Morning News Beat':

http://www.morningnewsbeat.com/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant