KDDI recently announced a pilot program in which their RFID-enabled mobile phones can be used in a shopping mall to provide information about stores, products and sales campaigns offered there. The program, developed in conjunction with Oki Electric Industry Company and iNAGO, is being tested at Stellar Mall, using KDDI’s new mobile phones with embedded RFID readers. Since the phones have readers rather than tags, the user is [more] in control — sensor rather than sensee.
I remember reading articles about coupons sent to mobile phones several years ago (e.g., in Wired and The Industry Standard), but don’t know how those earlier trials worked out. The announced plans for Stellar Mall are different in that they are location-based, possibly down to a very small granularity (a single store within a mall). There will still be a challenge in alerting users to the availability of proximate information, and I suspect that if the signal-to-noise ratio is not high enough, people will stop seeking information once the novelty factor wears off. Unfortunately, no specification of the trial’s duration was provided.
[Speaking of interesting, potentially useful, but as-yet unproven, location-based mobile phone applications, I wonder what is happening with WaveMarket …]
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One response to “Call of the Mall: Mobile Phones + RFID = New Shopping Experiences”
A great way to help customers decide where to shop is to show them what is available before they hit the malls – on the screen of their mobile phones.
Bluepulse has released patented new mobile phone technology called Mobile Mall which puts shopping mall specials and other information such as movie times onto just about any mobile phone screen. Customers don’t even have to be in the mall at the time.
Information is easily controlled by the mall management and it works anywhere in the world where mobiles work. Shoppers can be at home, on the bus or sipping coffee in the mall and can check out the shop specials or movies times and see what’s coming up in the mall. Just about everyone has a mobile phone these days and customers only receive what they request. Nothing is pushed to them and it is not spam.
It operates on the normal mobile network and does not use SMS. There is no cost to the user (unless particular malls choose to do so) apart from any carrier charges. Customers have control over what they receive and it’s easy to set up and use.
Customers also get free access to news, weather, horoscopes, sports and much more plus Bluepulses free integrated Instant Messenger enabling them to send messages from their phone to a computer or another mobile.
A level up from Mobile Mall, if the mall has a Bluetooth network, is their Wireless Mobile Mall which offers the ultimate in customer service where customers can be directed step by step around the mall to shops, toilets, ATMs, lifts etc, see where their friends are located and even send free messages.
The companies experience behind these two products has ensured that they are designed to help the customer, retailers and Mall Managers. Each one is individualised with the malls name and logo on the top of each screen. This really is the ultimate in customer service.
No doubt, a customers decision where to shop just got a whole lot easier!
Bluepulse is happy to arrange a free demonstration of their Mall Mobile on your mobile. For more information, contact stuarth@bluepulse.com.au