Even though mobile shopping is just in its infant stages – on part of consumers and on part of the retailers as well – more and more retailers turn to this new trend called mCommerce. At the moment, even though a company might have already set up a mobile shopping portal, the biggest chunk of sales revenue is generated elsewhere.
However, mobile devices offer much more than setting up shopping platforms only. Mobile holds the potential to close the gap between on- and offline channels and bring them together, thereby creating new business models. There are solutions available already today, which take the first step by intercepting a customer at a point of sale and define mCommerce in people’s daily lives.
Navteq is the navigation business of Nokia. Recently, they launched the indoor navigation service called “Destination Maps“, which makes it possible to precisely locate an object’s position in a closed room with a maximum deviation of 30cm from its real position. Up to now, it was almost impossible to locate objects within closed rooms, because the GPS signal would be too weak or non-existent. As soon as the floorplan is available to the device, “Destination Maps” makes use of a radio transmitter installed in the building to communicate with an app on a WiFi- or Bluetooth enabled smartphone. It is quite easy to install the system for shops, malls, airports, exhibition grounds, museums, office buildings and even hospitals.
In the US, “Destination Maps” already covers 200 of the largest shopping malls nationwide.
The advantage of Nokia’s technology lies in its ability to seamlessly switch between indoor and outdoor navigation within the same app.
Similar solutions are available from indoo.rs from Austria and Insiteo from France. The biggest advantage of these two start-up companies is that no new hardware equipment needs to be purchased.
Solutions for indoor navigation hold a vast array of opportunities for added-value services, especially regarding the retail business:
> “Talking Shelfs”: A concept from the food retailing industry can be realized easily
> Makes searching for certain shops (e.g. Sportswear), certain products (e.g. sports shoes) or certain brands (e.g. Nike) easy and convenient
> Facilitates the search for lifts for the handicapped, ATMs or help desks
> Perfect for location-based advertisements and push messages like coupons / special offers on a customer’s smartphone while he is in the store / mall
> Customers can be guided through the shop according to their own preferences
These are examples illustrating not only the advantages for consumers but also for the shop owner. It might actually help to increase traffic in the store. Most of the above mentioned use cases are already profitable within a few months after their introduction. But the critical part is to select the right service strategy and the proper implementation.
