Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly - November 9, 2010

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile retailing applications, mobile payments and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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Amazon.com just made an interesting upgrade to its iPhone mobile shopping app. Users of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3Gs running iOS 4 can now scan a barcode on a product and instantly get matching product and pricing information from Amazon's catalog.

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/10/amazon_adds_barcode_scanning_to_iphone_shopping_app.html

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Savvy apparel retailers are having no trouble wrapping their heads (and dollars) around mobile friendly sites and apps as a way to boost revenue and connect with consumers.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/publishing-style/how-fashion-brands-can-make-the-most-of-m-commerce/937

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Google Inc. is upgrading its shopping site as it steps up efforts to compete in web comparison shopping, a move to become a key player in a market dominated by sites like Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506404575592420335177184.html?mod=ITP_marketplace_2#ixzz14n4u4xUj

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A new Deals service expands Facebook Places to let smartphone users find business discounts wherever they are.

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Facebook-Adds-Business-Discounts/story.xhtml?story_id=010000NZQT34&full_skip=1

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An increase of smartphone users means the consumer is relying more on their phones for price comparisons, reviews, retail information, specials and promotions, which inevitably leads to a purchase.

http://www.zippycart.com/ecommerce-news/1636-mobile-commerce-product-availability.html

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Retailer Costco has launched a mobile commerce enabled site that it hopes will serve as an additional revenue stream.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/costco-goes-mobile-to-increase-revenue/

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PayPal announced Mobile Express Checkout, a two click payment on a mobile device and a mobile payments library, which adds chain and split payments.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371519,00.asp

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Location-based services are expected to boost mobile marketing, according to a new report.

http://www.directnews.co.uk/news/online-marketing/mobile-marketing/location-based-services-set-to-boost-mobile-marketing-$21377877.htm

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Businesses are integrating location-based services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Socialight into enterprise applications. For example, ice cream retailer Tasti D-Lite incorporated Foursquare into its loyalty program, providing extra reward points for customers who check in at a store using the application.

http://www.cio.com/article/630220/How_Retailers_Are_Using_Location_Based_Services_Such_as_Foursquare

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Mobile banking, and by extension mobile payments, have rapidly crossed the line from add-on to necessary products for financial institutions.

http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=2672

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Banks, billers, and processors seeking to boost electronic bill payment usage would do well to cast their lot with young, affluent consumers who are heavy users of smartphones.

http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=2682

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Mobile devices such as iPads and smartphones have opened windows of opportunities to better reach and enhance consumers’ experience. In the banking industry, Citibank is the first to initiate what it calls the “smart-banking” model in the Asia-Pacific region.

http://www.penn-olson.com/2010/10/21/citibank-smart-banking/

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There has been a rapid increase in the number of active users of location-based services in the United States, up from 12.3 million in 2009, and it is predicted to hit 33.2 million at the end of 2010.

http://fixed-mobile-convergence.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/111764-smartphone-adoption-predicted-drive-lbs-services.htm

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A recent eMarketer report projects that marketers will spend in excess of $1 billion on mobile marketing in 2011.

http://www.ricg.com/marketing_articles/digital_marketing/mobile_marketing_budgets_to_surpass_1_billion_next_year_/

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Facebook has revealed a series of improvements to its service on mobile devices in a move that lays the foundations for new revenue streams from retail stores, venues and small businesses.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/03/facebook-deals-mobile

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Retailers all over the country are trying to come up with user friendly, bargain hunting "killer" apps to appeal to the millions of people who now own smartphones.

http://www.nwcn.com/news/business/Holiday-shopping-wars-begin-on-your-smartphone-106811009.html

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Forty-three percent of mobile phone owners have purchased movies, music and games—“shrink-wrapped” physical goods, not digital products—via their phones between March and August.

http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/10/15/mobile-shoppers-are-buying-movies-clothing-and-more

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PayPal has unveiled new technologies that will allow people to change the way they pay - accessing their digital wallets from more devices to shop, browse and pay anytime, anywhere.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/software-computing/paypal-reinvents-the-mobile-payment-space-with-new-iphone-app/?news=123

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A number of top financial companies and banks are rushing out updates to fix security flaws in wireless banking applications that could allow a computer criminal to obtain sensitive data like usernames, passwords and financial information.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703805704575594581203248658-lMyQjAxMTAwMDAwODEwNDgyWj.html

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Location-based advertising has always been an important tool for local businesses. Coupons are key to the success of location-based services.

http://www.businessinsider.com/coupons-are-the-key-to-the-success-of-location-based-services-2010-11

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Surveying the Enterprise Mobility Landscape Today and in the Future

Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, Enterprise Mobility Expert and Industry Analyst, announces his new one day workshop for executive and management teams. This workshop is designed for business and IT managers and covers the following topics:

• An overview of enterprise mobility
• High priority mobility projects
• Current enterprise mobility trends
• The Future of Enterprise Mobility
• Best practices enterprise mobility strategies
• The impact enterprise mobility has on the art of management
• Enterprise mobility case studies and ROIs
• Preparing the enterprise for mobility
• Design, Development, Deployment and Support challenges
• Q & A and Discussions

Please contact Kevin Benedict via email or by phone at +1 208-991-4410.

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Recent Articles by Kevin Benedict

Mobile Payments and the Mobile Money Ecosystem
JiWire, Mobile Check-In and Mobile Retailing Applications
Mobile Retailing and NCF – Near Field Communications
Salesforce.com's Chatter, Mobile Knowledge Management and Collaboration
Report from Last Week's ClickConnect North America 2010 on Enterprise Mobility
Mobile Applications and Their Real Value
Flexible Mobile Solutions – The Great Debate
Questions About Enterprise Mobility and Recent Industry Developments
Security and Enterprise Mobility
iPad Databases, Gartner and Enterprise Mobility
Custom Mobile Applications for the Enterprise
SAP’s Perfect Plant and Enterprise Mobility

Recent Interviews by Kevin Benedict

Sybase's Shawn McEwen on Enterprise Mobility and ClickSoftware
Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Founder ClickSoftware
ClickSoftware's SVP of Alliances Nigel Clark
ClickSoftware's Simon Morris, VP Marketing
ClickSoftware's Senior VP of Worldwide Sales Zvi Piritz
ClickSoftware's Dmitri Krasik on Enterprise Mobility

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Archived editions of Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly are available at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-retail-news-weekly.html

You can follow me on Twitter @krbenedict and read my blog, Enterprise Mobility Strategies.

Also available are Kevin’s M2M News Weekly and Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.