Yesterday I went to an event at TechHub around making the most of mobile shopping. The panel was jointly hosted by TechHub, eBay and PayPal and gave some great insights around trends and developments as well as inspiration.
The main product that we’re working on at byflock is shopping related and I was particularly interested in hearing what PayPal had to say in terms of developments when it comes to simplifying payments. But also observations around trends and stats with regards to merchants and consumers and any advances in technology used in store.
Both PayPal and eBay gave good introductions talking about different type of shoppers who use their mobile phone (mission shoppers vs snackers) as well as stats e.g. that 44% of shoppers have researched online before going to the highstreet and that 43% of shoppers walk around with their phones and do research whilst on the high street, comparing prices etc. But the most interesting bit was by far the opportunities that lie in big data and what PayPal are doing with regards to payments.
There was also a small startup in the panel – Poq – who are focused on developing apps for fashion retail and they shared their learnings of what works well and things to consider when designing retail apps, pointing amongst other things on the fulfilment element being crucial and how the lack of the same is often one of the main reasons (combined with if there are technical problems) why app ratings often are low even for big brands with otherwise great apps.
The gist of the panel and discussion from yesterday were that the high streets, who are suffering from the increase in online sales, need to embrace internet and include it into their store experience. There is a lot of very exciting potential in this area, particularly with regards to payments and recommendations and our list of ideas for the future have, as a result of yesterday, now grown somewhat.
If you’re interested in mobile and high street retail then this article from econsultancy mentions a few of the points that were brought up yesterday so worth a read.
Tomorrow – Day 272 | Why you should communicate your vision
Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/paulamarttila/4846574014
