Mobile Coupons and Enterprise Mobility

In an article written by Helen Leggatt for BizReport, she writes that 54 percent of retailers will put m-coupon (mobile coupon) systems in place in the next 12 months.  These systems will allow coupons to be dispatched to customers' mobile phones and scanned at the point-of-sale.  I can anticipate that the "dispatched" component could easily be scheduled, location-based, by subscription or on-demand.

In a recent survey by mBlox it was found that over three quarters of all consumers surveyed use coupons when shopping, and 29 percent of UK and 15 percent of U.S. consumers have already used a mobile coupon.  In addition, 71 percent of UK and 42 percent of U.S. mobile users said they would be interested in receiving mobile coupons/vouchers while they are shopping in a store to alert them to a special offer or promotion.

The mBlox survey also shows that there is a different level of adoption rate between UK and U.S. consumers when it comes to business communications use mobile phones.

• 59 percent of UK and 17 percent of U.S. consumers surveyed stated SMS is their preferred choice when being contacted about appointment reminders.
• For payment reminders, such as credit card and utility bills, the consumer research showed that more than one in three consumers in the UK chose SMS as their preferred communication channel, but just one in 10 chose SMS in the U.S.
• Almost 90 percent of consumers prefer multi-channel options for interacting with businesses.

It will be interesting learning what components of SAP will be integrated with mobile coupon applications.  If you have insight into this, please let me know by commenting below.  SAP service partner, Smartsoft Mobile Solutions is one company that I know specializes in the mobile retail application market.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
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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.