Has the internet changed the nature of the way shopping occurs in stores these days? more
Facebook Places, Foursquare and just about every Social Networking seems to be focusing on location these days. But the problem is they all rely on some sort of check-in, whether it be manual check-in by the user or using the latest GPS/Geo-fencing based check-in.
Facebook Places, Foursquare and just about every Social Networking seems to be focusing on location these days. But the problem is they all rely on some sort of check-in, whether it be manual check-in by the user or using the latest GPS/Geo-fencing based check-in. Today’s check-ins are not user-friendly, battery unfriendly, sometimes inaccurate, prone to fraud and without a killer app it’s frankly beginning to lose its luster. In addition the incentives for checking in are meaningless and the check-in destinations are frivolous. To top it off the malaise with today’s Check-In is best summed by the recent AdAge Article: “I’m finding it harder and harder to be motivated to bother with Check-in. The novelty has worn off. I’m not so interested in being the mayor of my local dog park.”
In contrast, every ecommerce site relies on the cookie to identify and better serve repeat customers. It is astounding that physical retail, which is orders of magnitude larger than ecommerce, starts afresh its relationship with a repeat customer every time they walk into the store. Like online cookies, next generation check-ins will enable the future in mobile advertising, commerce spending and creating an Amazon.com-like experience in-store – we call this Check-In 2.0!
The Check-In 2.0 approach is to create an offline cookie by embedding Active RFID technology in a loyalty/credit card. The card serves as the customer identification platform. The consumer opts-in to receive offers and merely carries her card in her wallet as she does today. Offers are sent to the shoppers phone upon entry and as they browse the store. The phone serves as the communication platform.
The offline cookie and the mobile phone combine to create an Ad Network platform wherein the consumers location, browsing behavior, transaction information and demography define the context. Based on this context relevant offers are served. The business model is similar to the online Ad monetization models -- an offline equivalent to an online click-thru. The monetization potential is directly proportional to the relevance of the offers.
To read more about how we think the Check-In will evolve please see our presentation from NRF and the DASH7 group on SlideShare below ...
