The Mobile Retail Experience: Part Two - The Conference Track

Aside from the on-floor pavilion, the second part of the Mobile Retail Experience at CTIA was an educational conference track featuring speakers bringing together divergent points of view for a "Retail 101".

The morning opened with Rick Mathieson presenting "Bricks & Mobile: Transforming the In-Store Experience" which addressed the impact of mobile technology on branding - how consumer goods companies are beginning to engage shoppers directly with brand experiences that ultimately lead to purchases in retail stores. Key lesson: both manufacturing brands and retailers will share the consumer's mobile handset and need to work together to create experiences that serve the shopper.

Next up was Steve Rowen of Retail Systems Research presenting "Not Your Father's E-commerce..." examining trends in e-commerce and e-retailing and how shoppers are shifting in their use of the mobile Web as a way to shop. Key lesson: With shoppers already blurring the line between e-commerce and brick & mortar retail through online-to-offline features like buy online, pickup in store... actually having the Web in the palm of your hand changes the dynamic, and tomorrow's shoppers are already embracing new e-commerce features like price checking other retailer's Web sites while at the store shelf.

Former CIO of Virgin Megastores Robert Fort delivered the conference keynote "Innovation in Retailing: Lessons from the Front Line" which gave the audience a first hand look at technology management in the retail organization. Drawing on his tenure as one of the industry's most forward-thinking technology leaders, Robert presented an inspiring "reality check" that laid out Virgin's experience with in-store technology and outlined some of the underlying technology investments retailers need to make in preparation to engage customers on their mobile phones. Key lesson: Retail technology systems don't function in isolation, and integration into the other core transactional and marketing systems in the store is essential for mobile success.

Sophie-Charlotte Moatti of Nokia introduced attendees to Nokia's Point & Find technology with "Engaging Customers In-Store with Mobile." Point & Find is an innovative approach to identifying objects in the physical world using the shape and pattern of the real-world object instead of a barcode. This allows the latest generation of Point & Find-enabled Nokia phones to offer up an interactive experience simply when pointed at objects in a store. Key lesson: The "interface" between mobile phones and the physical world is fast disappearing, and the next wave of smart phone technologies will make it easier than ever for shoppers to connect to the physical environment of the store around them.

Shifting from the bleeding edge to the masses, Michael Mak, CEO of bCODE, delivered "Practical Applications in Mobile Couponing" exploring how bCODE leverages the "least common denominator" of wireless data technologies - the humble SMS text message - to deliver coupon codes to shoppers which are then redeemed at a bCODE scanner in the store. The scanner reads the text off the phone and prints a receipt with a barcode tailored to the individual retailer's POS system for redemption. Key lesson: By leveraging technology that reaches 99.7% of the 4 billion handsets in the world  - SMS text messaging - for delivery and creating an in-store redemption model that bypasses expensive integration in favor of a simply technology that can be read by virtually all POS terminals - printed barcodes - bCODE offers up a simple but elegant solution that is a perfect example of an "in between" technology that retailers can deploy today and evolve as the printed coupon is eclipsed by other technologies like near field and next-generation tags.

Again focusing on technology for the mainstream, Singletouch president and CEO Anthony Macaluso presented "Automated Dialing Codes." Leveraging a sophisticated back end that can respond to a customer dialing a simple code like #MEALS on their phone, Singletouch is able to respond with relevant shopping information, live customer service, or even an integrated text message promotion to the retailer's POS. Key lesson: With all the focus on next-generation data applications, don't forget the power of the voice interface. Many older shoppers are more comfortable talking on their phones than tapping on them, and neglecting this market segment in a retailer's mobile strategy is a crippling mistake.

The last presentation of the day was mobile analyst Mark Lowenstein, managing partner of Mobile Ecosystem, who delivered "Mobile Retail Applications from the Mobile Perspective." Departing from the retail-centric view of the world shared by most of the day's speakers, Mark discussed how the mobile industry is affected by the convergence with the retail industry. Key lesson: Regardless of the "new dynamics" resulting from a new model of shopping, the mobile industry is still the mobile industry, and retailers entering into this space need to contend with the same mix of carriers, handset manufacturers, and application developers as every other industry.

The day closed with a panel discussion featuring Steve Rowen, Michael Mak, and Obopay marketing head David Schwartz answering questions from the audience and discussing the themes of the day.

All in all, a great day of content and we at GREC both thank our speakers and attendees and look forward to future events bringing together the best and the brightest of both the retail and mobile industries.