So, are you ready to shop from your mobile phone?

Lightspeed Research recently conducted a survey in Britain regarding mobile shopping. The question asked was – Are you comfortable with the idea of buying products or services through your mobile phone? 1000 people took part in the survey and over 17% of them were positive about buying products or services through their mobile phone.

Most of the participants also said that they will buy stuff only from well known retailers. Also, they were comfortable with shopping for ‘on-the-go’ products like concert tickets, film tickets, holiday vouchers, and travel tickets.

With mobile coupons becoming more and more popular, I think the next mobile revolution will take place in the retail industry. While 17% might look like a small figure, it will certainly go up if people find it easy and secure to shop from their mobile phone. Already, mobile based services like mobile banking are popular because banks have made the process very simple and secure at the same time. So, an effective, easy-to-use platform with a secure payment gateway could be the best way to entice customers into mobile shopping.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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Get ready for mobile coupons

A recent survey from Juniper Research says that mobile coupons will become very popular in a few years and retailers would send around 3 billion mobile coupons by 2011.

Mobile coupons, in my opinion, are a brilliant way for a retailer to connect to his customers directly. It is way more effective than the coupons you find in newspapers and magazines. Most people, including yours truly, often forget to make use of the coupon clips within the required timescale. I, for one, collect various coupons from newspapers and magazines but hardly make use of them because most of the times I forget to take them when I go shopping. With mobile coupons, there is no such problem. You get a coupon in your text message and all you have to do is show it to the retailer/shop owner the next time you shop for something. Since we always have our mobile phone with us, it becomes easier.

QR codes can be a good idea, but then you can’t expect everyone to have a mobile phone with camera facility to scan the ads. But still, it’s a very good technology that can be used effectively.

We’ve already seen some examples where mobile coupon campaigns have been quite successful and I think it will continue to be so. Like I’ve always said, the most important thing is to provide value to people. If you do so, you’ll always find takers.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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