I wasn’t able to find anything on the web about this, so I’m not sure how real it was, but IBM was showing a demonstration of Social Media Data Mining. The concept was simply to take social media, forum, message board, and other data aggregate it for analysis, sentiment, etc.
The aggregation of social media data for a retailer to monitor their brand will be ’standard equipment’ for large chains in 5 years. Companies like Radian6, Scout Labs and Visible Technologies are leading the way.
I’m not sure how I missed this one. Thanks to Alan Taetle for pointing it out to me. I remember seeing their booth at NRF, but it just looked like a bunch of tchotchke’s with an attitude. Needless to say, I missed this for my top 10 list, but in retrospect this likely would have gotten a top spot.
We’ve been hearing about digital wallets for a long time now. At CES last week, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs announced Swagg.
According to the PDF I found at Pixelatedeek.com, “Swagg enables smart, efficient and rewarding transactions on the go. Swagg allows users to purchase, share and exchange gift cards, receive and redeem offers, view loyalty card points or balances, share content and more – straight from the convenience of a mobile device.”
According to an article by Mike Freeman of the Union tribune, Paul Jacobs (Qualcomm’s CEO) said the mobile-gift-card portion of the Swagg platform should be available before the next holiday season.
There are quite a number of new players in the mobile payments space – Square, Mophie, FaceCash and more traditional players like VivoTech and Verifone. Swagg is a big play, but Qualcomm is a great company (as is their Atlanta-based subsidiary driving this – Firethorn) with massive resources and global reach.
Swagg has the potential to significantly impact the customer experience as it relates to loyalty and gift cards making them both mobile and social. Definitely one to watch.
There’s not much on the website yet, but here’s a slick video for your enjoyment.
Joe Skorupa, Editor-in-Chief, RIS News recently wrote a blog post entitled “Fearless Retail Predictions: Part 2.” He interviewed a strong panel of industry analysts, technology vendors and one retailer to come up with a list of predictions for 2010. The predictions were heavily slanted toward the use of mobile and social media technologies.
However, when you juxtapose these predictions with a recent comment from the RIS/IHL Group Store 2010 Store Systems Study, something is not lining up.
“In this year’s study, we also asked how retailers use technology to enhance the customer experience. Should technology be used front and center as part of the experience or behind the scenes? Nearly half of the respondents (48%) answered: “We use technology to enable speed and execution, but it is largely invisible to consumers other than speed through checkout.” In other words, the customer experience in the store is not tied to technology.”
I’m confused because I believe that the power of mobile and social media technologies lies in just that – enhancing the customer experience. This survey is directed heavily at IT personnel (63% of respondents). Perhaps retail IT executives don’t see mobile and social media technologies as enhancing the customer experience. Perhaps they are just not involved with how these technologies are being leveraged.
Based on my experience with retail executives, these tools are being investigated mainly by the marketing department led by ad agencies looking for ways to capitalize on the changing media landscape. Agencies are proposing mobile applications, couponing services, location-based services, social media campaigns and other creative ways of tapping into the social and mobile scene; all without much IT involvement.
CIO’s need to get their arms around these marketing efforts – not to control them, but to help the organization understand how to more fully leverage these technologies; integrating mobile into multi-channel and loyalty efforts, integrating social media into business intelligence efforts. If left to outside forces, opportunities to leverage these technologies to differentiate the customer experience may be diminished or lost. When these tools are integrated into the retailers’ infrastructure, they will truly become technology which enables a differentiated customer experience.
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