By Chuck Martin
Mobile is getting better at being integrated into everyday life.
While the mobile payments marketplace is still fragmented, various small pieces of commerce are getting better and becoming more seamless.
Research regularly shows that mobile shoppers are attracted to deals, so during some travel and shopping trips over the weekend, I looked at some of the methods that shoppers can receive some of these deals.
At Bed Bath and Beyond, I needed a few items. Armed with the regularly mailed paper coupon offering a 20% discount on one item, I headed to checkout with my three items.
A few weeks back, I received a ping from my RetailMeNot app offering the same discount. I used that at the time but checked the app and there was no deal this time around.
Of course, the app offered an option for me to let Bed Bath and Beyond know that I would like more coupons from the app, a message presumably forwarded along to Bed Bath and Beyond.
When receiving a paper coupon, the cashiers at Bed Bath and Beyond tear them to avoid multiple use. So after she tore mine, I loaded my ValPak app for the same coupon and then SnipSnap for another: 20% saved on all three items.
Then it was off to the Wegmans grocery store where I opened my Wegmans app to have its code easily scanned at checkout, which automatically identifies and applies discounts for on-sale items. The app also cleverly shows me my most popular purchases, those by department and purchases by shopping date.
Much like the Staples app shows what brand of printer cartridge you normally buy, the Wegmans app can be used for reminders as well as shopping lists. Not revolutionary, but simply practical.
After getting home, I scanned the Wegmans receipt with my Checlout51 app and received additional cash rewards for some of the items purchased.
And what weekend would be complete without a visit to Best Buy, which was my next stop, to pick up a backup set of headphones.
After giving my Best Buy rewards and Shopkick numbers for double credit at checkout, I showed the cashier a 20% discount coupons on my SnipSnap app. As a last step before paying, I scanned the product barcode with ShopSavvy that changed the entire transaction.
Immediately after the scan, a window on the app popped up identifying that Best Buy would match the price of Newegg.com, replete with a quick link to verify the price of the product at Newegg. The result was a 30% discount on the headphones, all within a few seconds.
The nice part of the transaction is the app did the work of identifying the best competitive price and highlighting it in an instant.
The little things in mobile commerce continue to get better.
All the major issues relating to mobile commerce will be discussed at the MediaPost OMMA mCommerce conference in New York on Aug. 7. Hope to see you there. Check out the agenda.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk column. He is the author of “Mobile Influence,” “The Third Screen,” and “The Smartphone Handbook.” He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute. Chuck Martin is a frequent Mobile Keynote Speaker and Mobile Marketing Speaker internationally. He also addresses Social Media in Mobile.
