It looks like a good day in the northeast for some mobile couch commerce.
With snow pinning many consumers into their homes, I have to wonder how many will be turning to their smartphones and tablets not only to check the current weather forecast but also to do a bit of remote shopping.
The downside is that location-enabled apps are obviously of little use here. The associated features with checking in with Shopkick or nearby offers from Yelp aren’t too helpful to the snowbound resident.
But everything else mobile shopping related is clicking on all cylinders, my wife has informed me.
I just checked and she’s upstairs iPad-armed skimming through her shop category on Facebook where small retailers are posting deals as I write this, knowing mobile shoppers are sitting at home. (No, I was not aware she had a specific Facebook shop category).
Later we’re going to book a trip she’s taking, having just conducted the flight research via my OnTheFly app.
She’s just informed she’s looking at reviews and Broadway show tickets as well as other shows. (This storm is starting to look expensive).
The power likely will go out here, since it regularly does at every major storm, so we’re set to move to Verizon mobile hot spots for the household. Or, since one of my sons is home from college for a few days, we may use his Android FoxFi app, which will give us a wireless hot spot for free.
With power out after dark, we could use either of our two favorite flashlight apps, TeslaLed for Android or Flashlight for iOS, but likely just to find real flashlights or candles, since we all know phone battery life still has a ways to go.
Snowed-in and mobile shopping?
Chuck Martin is editor of mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk. He is author of “The Third Screen,” “The Smartphone Handbook,” and the soon-to-be-published “Mobile Influence.” He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and a frequent mobile keynote speaker around the globe.
