Smartphones creating smart shoppers
Shopping in the years to come will be a quick, easy and hassle free experience, where almost anything you like will be a click away.
With the uptake in technology and the demand for smartphones growing daily, the little devices that we use to make simple calls and send SMSes will slowly become our best shopping companions.
“Customers know what they want and it’s up to us to give it to them. The retail market is continually changing at its own pace. Smartphones have changed the consumers’ approach to the retail industry, consumers find them [retail stores] at the own peril, it’s no longer about retailers chasing them [consumers],” said Nomalanga Nkosi, General Manager: Business Marketing, MTN South Africa, who was speaking at an MTN Business breakfast talk on Monday hosted by renowned Retail Industry Expert Simon Mathers.
In the future smartphones will become a bigger part of your shopping experience. For example, the world’s second largest retail group Tesco launched a project in the UK where you can shop for groceries using your smartphone scan, watch video.
You select a picture of the product barcodes you desire, have it placed into a virtual shopping basket and then have the actual product delivered to your doorstep – all without you having to step foot into a store, as payments are made via your credit card. UK based Tesco, which has been hailed as a tough competitor for other shopping stores such as the US’s Wal-Mart, has been hailed as the technology leader in its sector, boasting new features expected to make way in the years to come.
Augmented reality is also expected to become part of your shopping experience – by simply scanning and taking a photo of a cereal box product barcode which may have a gaming promotion, you will be able to download and play a game in which all objects appear in 3D and “real” in the virtual sense. The barcodes operate similarly to BlackBerry’s QR codes that are arranged as a black and white matrix that acts as a portal to information in the form of text, URL or other data.
For ladies who dread hours spent in store fitting rooms, working up a sweat after trying on clothes that don’t fit and having your “perfect” silhouette become somehow distorted by the mirror in the fitting cubicles, a virtual reality image of the outfit you would like to try on will be projected on to a “mirror” to allow you to see yourself in it without having to undo your top button.
Payment methods for all purchases are also subject to change with the development of a “cash-less” society by means of using M-Commerce, mobile money, and NFC technology via mobile phones to pay for purchases. For those who have security concerns, Andy Anderson, Senior Manager: Large Corporates & Resellers: Business Marketing, MTN
, says you have two options to enhance your privacy should your smartphones get stolen: “Users could either log in and out of an app every time they make use of it, or they could make use of separate apps that have security features that allow for users details to be remotely wiped from the device [memory]”.
A word of advice to SA players
During the talk it was revealed that local retail companies need to establish some form of web existence, not only to inform consumers of where stores are located but to ensure they become more user friendly and interactive.
Speaking to the crowd via Skype, Mathers said: “There’s been a slow uptake of smartphone and, mobile shopping in South Arica. Only the cellphone networks have shown initiative, but there is still a lack of understanding and execution in this market”.
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