Global Retail Executive Council

Retail Innovation Trend: Pop-up retailing

The holidays have arrived and it's time for me to make that traditional annual visit! No, not to grandma's house... but to the mall!  Here in the United States and abroad malls (aka "shopping centres") have a similar vibe, format and purpose: Provide a disparate collection of chain stores under one "roof, a big box category killer or two, and anchor it all with a couple department stores or hypermarkets at the ends. It's a model that worked well for many decades, but like so many things in retail... is struggling in the "new normal" of 21st century retailing. According to Georgia Tech professor Ellen Dunham-Jones, coauthor of Retrofitting Suburbia, beginning in the mid 1990's, a decline in tenant occupancy began, suggesting shoppers were beginning to shy away from the tried and true mall model. A downward spiral began: vacant store windows and shuttered doors meant fewer choices for shoppers, leading many of them to look elsewhere, and the decline in foot traffic lead to even more vacancies, starting the cycle anew.

Now add in a global recession with an unprecedented number of retailers closing up stores: suddenly the sprinkling of vacant space "available for lease" has become in some cases whole corridors or even the entire mall. There's even an entire website dedicated to mourning the passing of shopping malls.

So how are malls trying to stave off demise or even prosper? Promotions? Increased advertising? Retrofitting? All of these are parts of the solution, but truly if that's all it takes, why are so many malls still going under or suffering so badly?

While there are many new ideas for how retailers can embrace new formats (and we'll be exploring several of them here on the GREC blog), this posting is about a particular concept that's rising in popularity all over the world: the pop-up store. According to RetailTraffic, the pop-up is where a retailer is allowed to sign a temporary lease lasting anywhere from two months to six months. Mall owners have pushed hard against this trend - preferring the perceived stability of long-term leases - but given the rising vacancy rates and big-box store closings, more and more are seeing the value in changing their mindset.

Pop-up retail isn't about the calendar/game stands or Halloween costume stores that spring into being during the holiday seasons or the ubiquitous kiosks selling everything from faux hair extensions to emulational sleeping kittens... pop-up implies something more...

I saw it in a mall in Hong Kong: A strikingly beautiful all glass building temporarily erected right in the middle of the main floor. The merchandise was unique graphic t-shirts artfully arranged as if in a museum. The entire roof was signage, announcing to the 7 floors of escalators that it was, indeed, the "I.TXX POP UP STORE" in unmistakable language. In short... it had my attention.

What makes the pop-up different isn't just that it's temporary; there are three major types of pop-up that are now gaining popularity:

• well known retailers testing the waters in a new territory or capitalizing on a season (for example Toys R' Us Holiday Express stores, or Target's pop-up stores in Sydney or their docked ship in Manhattan)
• brand names or startup retailers pulling out the stops on a product launch (for example adidas Originals at London Fashion Week)
• brands and retailers creating in-store experiences that reinforce their core brand values and customer activities in ways that don't fit their store formats (for example Quiksilver Pop-Up Skatepark)

So why is pop-up retailing the "big idea" that reinvents the mall and gets retailers and shoppers back into the mall space? Because pop-up retailing changes the rules: the store is an event - not just a destination. And this new paradigm gives retailers the flexibility to try new things, delight their customers, and create a sense of urgency without the "sale prices end Friday!!!!" hype. And I'll add one other point to that... consumers EXPECT more from the shopping experience - even in existing formats - so adding a pop-up experience to how shoppers see your brand can lead to increased sales in your existing stores as well.

And for extra customer satisfaction: for all of us who face this holiday season with lowered expectations, fully prepared for another trip to the mall to see the same tired holiday displays and "Black Friday" sale prices on the way to see Santa, surprise and delight us... Give us an incredible pop-up experience, and use a combination of social media and a mobile retail experience to lead us there to shop!

Mobile retail / ecommerce parallels: Part one - the platform wars

Those of us who have developed for the Web remember when you had to create different versions of your site for every browser or face the consequence of dumbing everything down to render properly on America Online. Animation? Javascript? Interaction? Forget it; straight HTML and GIF images, or you risk alienating a big chunk of visitors to your site.

Mobile retail faces a similar challenge today: to go beyond the raw simple mobile Web page, retailers need to embrace many different platforms, each with its own development environment, ecosystem, simplicities and complexities. Each smartphone platform has its own capabilities and unique challenges and opportunities, and the reality is that retailers looking to truly embrace mobile retail and thrive in that ecosystem HAVE to develop excellent apps across a critical mass of platforms.

While every retailer will face different mobile demographics across their customer base (teens shopping Forever 21 are far more likely to be heavy texters than customers of Coldwater Creek, for example), a good starting point is the current market share for both mobile phones and smartphones:

Mobile Phone Marketshare	Smartphone Marketshare
Nokia - 36.7% Samsung - 19.6% LG - 10.3% Motorola - 4.5% Sony Ericsson - 4.3% Others - 24.6%	Nokia - 39.3% Research in Motion - 20.8% Apple - 17.1% HTC - 6.5% Samsung - 3.2% Others - 13.1%

What this means for retailers is that if they are considering deploying a true smartphone application that will both add functionality based on the device beyond a simple mobile Web site and will hit a critical mass of their audience, they have to develop for several discrete smartphone plaftforms: Nokia, RIM (Blackberry), Apple (iPhone), Windows Mobile... and now Samsung.

This does indeed hearken back to the ecommerce days when a Web site needed to be tweaked and optimized for Netscape, Internet Explorer, America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy (and yes, I'm finding myself lost in a wave of Web-based nostalgia)... but eventually, this settled into a standard set of functions and code that works across virtually every browser today.

Unfortunately, such a time is quite a ways off for mobile retailing, for three primary reasons:

1. Carrier influence and customization of the user experience. Unlike my laptop, where my operating system (Mac OS X) and my browser (Firefox) determine most of my UI, cell phones often have the operating system (for example, Windows Mobile) overlaid with a custom interface developed either by the handset manufacturer (HTC, for example), the carrier (Sprint) or some combination of all three. This means that simple concepts like determining a user's location, detecting a finger swipe, or auto-detecting screen orientation are done literally thousands of different ways, making cross-handset application development a nightmare for the retailer.
2. Lack of convergence of economic model. Ecommerce was simple: everyone could go direct, and for a while, everyone did. You suddenly had manufacturers selling direct, followed promptly by echoing "Doh!"s and palm slaps to the forehead as they discovered that retailing was more than putting your catalog and a shopping cart online. But to create a mobile retail experience, the economic interests of user, brand/manufacturer and retailer all need to be aligned... and they aren't. Look at it this way: Proctor & Gamble doesn't care whether you buy Tide at Safeway or Albertsons, so long as you buy Tide... Safeway doesn't care whether you buy Tide or Woolite, so long as you buy it at Safeway... and the consumer simply wants the best deal. Mobile provides an execution vehicle that allows targeting individual shoppers, but without a more unified trade promotions and advertising model, mobile will remain a sideline to more traditional advertising.
3. A lack of organizational responsibility for mobile. Just as retailer struggled with the question of who "owns" ecommerce and how to manage it within the retail enterprise, mobile faces similar orphan status. It has the potential to be the true connection between Web sites and stores (touching the spheres of influence of both the ecommerce and store operations groups), it united manufacturer trade promotion dollars with retailer marketing (forcibly uniting buyers and marketers), and it bridges the gap between retailer technology infrastructure and customer-owned devices (blurring the line between IT and customer service). It's confusing as all hell, and unless retailers slice through the Gordian knot of their own organizational structure and embrace mobile as a top-level customer experience priority with a "czar" empowered to simply make it happen.

Execution is hard, and mobile raises the bar. Samsung's new platform has the potential to help simplify the problem, but it ain't EVER going to be easy for retailers. But it's worth doing, and retail winners in 2011 will spend 2010 diving in and investing their own resources in developing their strategies.

Dead mobile phone battery? There's no map (or "app") for that...

Let's get one thing straight... If you had told me that I would ever write a blog post on the battery of life of phones, I would have laughed. I'm not a geek - or for that matter someone who claims to know a great deal about technology. (I leave that to our executive director who is a rather passionate geek.)

But I do LOVE my gadgets.  My MacBook roams the world (and my living room) with me, rarely separated by more than a few feet... my iPod shuffle is my faithful friend every time I run... and hardly a week goes by when I don't praise Nintendo for the glorious moments of squabble-free silence that a pair of DS portable game systems give me when driving with my kids in the car.

But the one gadget that is my constant companion - the one I use from sun-up to past sundown, falling asleep to the soft glow of the screen - is my mobile phone.

So you may ask yourself what does this have to do with global retail?? Well, I will tell you shortly. It all started with a simple question I asked the exhibitors and speakers at this year's CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment expo: "You are telling me I can do all these amazing things with my phone... How are you going to improve the battery life so I don't run out of juice mid-afternoon?"

When I asked this question I got a mix of puzzled stares, patronizing chortles... and a few thoughtful pauses followed by either a response that it was a good question or "if you can figure that out, you'll be a gazillionaire..."

So this week, with the debut and reviews of the new Droid phone from Verizon, the question of battery life has gone beyond the iPhone fanboy and hater debate. Tony Bradley of PCWorld reports that the Droid is "power hungry". Now, to be honest, I suspect that no matter what the device is, if you're a power user (i.e. you're on mobile Facebook), it's quite common to run out of battery in the middle of the day. Tony's point is that Droid users will have to change their entire outlook of charging their phone: if you're not using it, charge it... in the car, at your desk, on the treadmill, on your bedside table... pretty much everywhere. No more "once a day," it's "all the day."

Now for many of us, this is already a way of life: I spend a lot of time in my car and the majority of it I am recharging so that I don't go dead at an untimely moment (it's always just before the school calls with a kid-related "emergency" or a friend puts out a life changing Facebook status update), but I also want to use my phone for all of TODAY'S applications: checking a price on Amazon, getting a weather report, texting a friend... and all of that takes a ton of battery life.

So here's the connection to global retail.  There are more and more applications coming onto the market promising to help shoppers: in-store information, banking and mobile payments (especially in the emerging markets), mobile coupons, augmented reality... As we become more and more dependent on our phones to shop, what happens when I'm in the middle of a purchase and my battery dies? Or, trying to preserve that last sliver of battery life just in case my kids' school calls, what if I simply skip using the mobile app because I don't want to risk losing my PHONE in favor of my mobile device?

These problems compound in emerging markets, where the mobile phone is quickly becoming bank, wallet, computer, television and shopping device combined. And while a farmer in Uganda is more interested in real-time commodity pricing on his crops than mobile marketing from Kraft, the challenges to extending the battery life of an already-stretched device remain the same.

So yes, for now, I agree with Tony: I need to change my charging ways. But it does make me wonder when the superbattery is going to arrive and return "mobility" to my mobile phone.

I will certainly fall asleep tonight to the dim fading light of my phone, pondering this question...

Stay tuned for part two of this post: an exploration of how battery life and mobile phone use is changing around the globe, and some of the innovative solutions extending battery life in rural developing countries offers intriguing opportunities for retailers looking to help shoppers in their stores.

Live (well, delayed slightly) from the CTIA 2009 show floor: The Mobile Retail Experience

Over the weekend, received the raw footage shot by CTIA during the final day of the expo when they asked us to give them an overview of the Mobile Retail Experience and a guided tour of the pavilion. In this 10 minute video, you can see the incredible opportunity for how retailers can take advantage of mobile phones: from short codes, to text message coupon redemption, to the latest in image-recognizing handsets, the future of shopping is here today...

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.

The Mobile Retail Experience: Part One - "Tag Your IT!"

Well, the weeks of preparation are finally behind us as last week GREC was proud to showcase the Mobile Retail Experience at the 2009 International CTIA IT & Wireless conference and expo in San Diego.

This is one of the premier wireless industry events, and GREC partnered with CTIA to create two primary elements within the conference, brought together under the umbrella of the "Mobile Retail Experience." Over the next week, we'll be exploring some of the key learnings from the event, centering our discussion on the intersection of the wireless and retail industries.

The centerpiece of the Mobile Retail Experience was the "Tag Your IT!" pavilion hosted on the expo floor. This pavilion brought together four separate technology vendors into the industry's first simulated store shopping environment, covering an end-to-end shopping trip:

1. A street team circled the convention center wearing t-shirts with three different "tags" on it: the Nokia Point & Find enabled logo on the front and a back featuring an industry-standard QR code for other camera-enabled phones and an abbreviated dialing code (#147) from Singletouch so people could dial a short code and listen to an interactive message.
2. At that point, the visitor could enter their phone number and receive a text message inviting them to the booth and giving them a bCODE - a text message accessible to 99.7% of the roughly 4 billion mobile handsets in the world today - which brought them into the "store" to be redeemed at "checkout."
3. In the store, three different technologies for providing shoppers with additional information at the shelf: abbreviated dialing codes from Singletouch made it easy for shoppers to get recipes, deals, and product information by dialing simple codes like #MEALS on their phones; Tranzfinity showed how a physical environment could link into the world of social media on Facebook; and Nokia's Point & Find technology seemingly magically enabled shoppers to point the camera on their phone at products and trigger interactive experiences.
4. Three separate stations, illustrating the three primary shopping categories (food, fashion & speciality goods), gave our visiting "shoppers" a first hand look at how these technologies come together to improve the shopping process.


• FOOD: Moving the phone over boxes of macaroni gave the visitor allergy information, while apples were tagged with location of origin, method of harvest, varietal and organic status.


• FASHION: By moving the phone over a shoe on display, shoppers could find out if the store had their size in stock - a major time saver for the customer and labor savings for the retailer.


• SPECIALITY: A handheld computer was tagged with multiple information sources, from product reviews to carrier compatibility to ancillary software applications, all accessible by simply moving the phone over the device.


5. At the end of the shopping experience, visitors could redeem their bCODE at the "point of sale" to see if they had won a prize.

This complete "end to end" storyline is unique, and at the heart of the Mobile Retail Experience. While the show floor was jam-packed with companies showcasing technologies, it is up to retailers to tie them together into a comprehensive offering to their shoppers that simply makes the shopping experience BETTER. This was the point of the Mobile Retail Experience: to actually demonstrate how different technologies work together in a retail environment.

Stay tuned for more coverage from the conference. Next up: the education track.

The Retail Experience: ON THE ROAD - Shopping for Shoes the New Fashioned Way

My post today is strictly based on retail DESIRE - not observation about what is happening in the world of retail. So read my musings if you like... this blog is meant to provide insight, hopefully inspire, and maybe even incite a lil' rebellion. And this entry is about shoe shopping... no not the pretty kind, but the functional kind, where the shopping experience could use a little improvement.

I tend to get my best ideas while out running, which means I spend a lot of time running trying to keep my creative juices flowing. Well, all that running takes a toll on my feet and shoes, and despite knowing that recent blisters and sore joints were caused by the cushion in my running shoes being completely worn out, I went many, many more miles on them than I should have. So I took the time today to purchase a new pair.

At a recent race I'd managed to pick up a coupon for 10% off at a local running store (without an expiration date mind you), and after finding the (of course printed) coupon in the junk drawer of my kitchen, I thought I'd take them up on the offer and buy a new pair from them.

Thinking ahead I called the store to make sure that they had my brand, in my size, and in stock. The result... a resouding NO. So they lost the sale. Now I don't speak for every hard core runner out there, but I have been wearing the same Saucony Omni 8's for the past 4 years and I am a brand loyalist. I wouldn't trust my feet in anything else. They manage my pronation, help keep me relatively injury free, and achieve some personal running bests! I'm not about to switch now. They retail for $110 and IF I can get 10% off somewhere and they have them in stock, they have my sale.

SO here's where I begin to think about the retail experience and where the loyalty to brand and the consumer experience could get FAR better in my opinion. Knowing what I know about running shoes, I should be getting new shoes about every 300 to 500 miles (there are a lot of variables to how many miles, but I won't deep dive here...) and I know that I like to track and log my progress.

Recently I began to use an app in Facebook called RunLogger to do this and I also know that there are several mobile apps that do that AND log for you. Many phones are GPS enabled and will tell you quite a bit about your run. THAT is fantastic! But these applications could do so much more...

What if - during that time period where I was likely to need new shoes - I was messaged by a nearby retailer and told that they have my Saucony Omni 8's in a size 8.5 in stock to either ship to me or come into the store to buy? If they wanted me to come in the store and try to upsell me on a few other goodies instead of just having my new shoes delivered, they could offer simple services like an analysis of my last pair of shoes (a review of how they are wearing, any injuries had since the last purchase, etc.) or free pair of socks to sweeten the deal. They could even make it time sensitive - my own personal "one week only sale" to get my 10% off.

And where is the natural place to reach out and touch me with a retail offer based around my running habit? MY PHONE OF COURSE!!!

So I ask you, what other things in your life do you routinely need? Milk? Diapers? Cereal? Toilet paper? Shampoo? Where does your loyalty as a consumer lie - to the brand or to the retailer? Especially with products where you KNOW how much you use and when? And what do you as a retailer really KNOW about those habits? Probably a LOT, but you aren't using that information to help me buy more, or more frequently, or higher end products.

As mobile applications create a new model for consumers to share data with retailers - and profit from the sharing, retailers need a new engagement model that spans ALL the touchpoints with shoppers - from their inbox to Facebook to their mobile phone. And don't forget, some of us rely near exclusively on the mobile versions of sites like Facebook... and if your strategy is to simply buy ads there, guess what? We don't even see them...

In the end, I bought my shoes at another store - and paid full price. They had great in store service - but the only reason I even found out about that was the simplest retail draw of all: they had my shoes in stock when I called!

And one parting thought: When I went up to the counter, they asked my name and looked me up in their CRM system... but as far as I could tell, didn't do anything at all with that little morsel. Remember, retailers: if you ask us for info, use it to help us. And a note to that particular retailer: you've got 300 miles to figure out how to get me back for the next pair of shoes...

The Retail Experience: AROUND EVERY CORNER - Shorter Path to Coffee? Sign Me UP!

Happy first day of Fall everyone! Retailers are already messaging me that Christmas is right around the corner and get to shopping!  After a rough retail summer analysts are busy speculating what this holiday season holds and signs suggest that incentives to get me into their stores will continue aggressively in the 2009 holiday season.  

Just this last week, a whole batch of discount cards meant to entice me into their stores came via my physical mailbox... Some offered a percentage off, others with a modest cash discount.  From the looks of it, my first purchase needs to be a bigger wallet to hold all of these cards!  

Everything from reward cards to gift cards to loyalty cards are scattered around my house, my car and in many of my purses.  And the most painful part of it all?  I NEVER seem to have the ones I need when I am out shopping!!! So this morning I took a pick of my most recently acquired assortment and began considering... What good are they all to me OR the retailer if I never use them?  I count my nickels as much as the next guy, but realistically I'm not going keep a 2" thick rubber band bundled collection of plastic cards in my purse!  OK... Maybe with the exception of my daily used Starbucks Gold Card...  

AND that said... Just this morning the NY Times Gadgetwise Blog a glimmer of hope was offered based on a mobile phone-based test Starbucks in running in several stores. I'm delighted to read this and I don't think it's too far fetched to say that soon I'd love to be able to ORDER my special "grande, nf, 3 pump, no whip mocha" without having to even state it and PAY with a simple swipe of my mobile!  Heck, my phone is the one item I can always guarantee retailers I'll have on me!!!

Starbucks is joining a rapidly growing number of retailers that understand and are preparing for the implications of billions of smartphone-armed shoppers in their stores.  The Global Retail Executive Council has partnered with CTIA for the inaugural GREC Mobile Retail Experience™. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience mobile retailing both on the show floor in the dynamic and innovative "Tag Your IT!" pavilion and in an exciting and informative conference tracking featuring a range of topics of critical importance to both industries.

So if you’re a retailer and want to be in the know, please join GREC in San Diego - Wednesday, October 7 and listen to a dynamic lineup of speakers covering the gamut of issues faced by retailers exploring this mobile shoppers realm. www.mobileretailexperience.com And if you don’t... at least get ready to start thinning out your wallet!!!

Augmented reality: the next frontier of mobile retail? (Part One: Nike)

One of the most intriguing areas where a mobile device changes the game is the area of "augmented reality." Augmented reality describes where the position and orientation of a video camera on a phone is used to establish what is being seen on the screen, and computer graphics are overlaid on top of the video image the user sees to "augment" the real images. For example, holding your phone up and pointing it at a restaurant's menu might pop up translations and nutrition information on the items on the menu.

This concept holds truly massive opportunities for retailers to explore in their stores, and over the next couple weeks, we're going to bring you many stories of how augmented reality is applied to retail. Our first example comes from Hong Kong, where Nike did a particularly innovative campaign to create awareness of their T-90 product line by giving consumers an incredibly rich content experience... right in the palm of their hand and right where they were likely to be thinking about the product, from the soccer field to the retail mall.

Watch a video of the Nike augmented reality project at McKann...

Augmented reality may seem like science fiction, but it's here today... and easily available through some of the most popular smartphones out there like the iPhone. So retailers face a simple choice: understand how mobile retailing works now, or play catchup to more savvy competitors next year. Agree? Disagree? Either way, join the conversation at the inaugural GREC Mobile Retail Experience event at the fall CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Diego on 7 October 2009. Retailers, industry analysts, and technology experts will be gathered to explore how retail will adapt to - and ultimately thrive with - customers armed with connected smartphones in the store. We'd like to invite you to join us at this exciting event, and you can learn more about it at http://www.mobileretailexperience.com

American Eagle Outfitters launches new mobile commerce capabilities

American Eagle Outfitters took a new step toward a true mobile retail experience with the recent launch of its mobile commerce capabilities. One of the most important things they did was to focus in on how the shopper might access their site from their phone as opposed to a laptop or desktop, with a focus on:

• getting to the store through mobilized maps and directions
• purchase of product within the store
• sharing information about the shopping process in real-time with friends and family

The need to create a mobile retail experience for your customers goes far beyond making your Web site work on a mobile phone... and retailers like AEO that are truly understanding what their shoppers want in a retail experience are going to have a major headstart on brands that wait and play catchup in 2010 and beyond. We believe that truly incorporating mobile into your shopping experience is one of the most critical - and potentially most rewarding - strategic directions retailers can take as we move into the next decade of retailing. Agree? Disagree? Either way, join the conversation at the inaugural GREC Mobile Retail Experience event at the fall CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Diego on 7 October 2009. Retailers, industry analysts, and technology experts will be gathered to explore how retail will adapt to - and ultimately thrive with - customers armed with connected smartphones in the store. We'd like to invite you to join us at this exciting event, and you can learn more about it at http://www.mobileretailexperience.com

Read more about it from Reuters:

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) today announced the launch of its mobile commerce program. In addition to browsing and buying, customers can now experience expanded functionality of www.ae.com from their mobile devices, including Find a Store and Wish Lists.

"We know that AE customers are using their mobile devices for just about everything, from communication to entertainment," said Mike Dupuis, vice president of marketing, digital channels. "Mobile commerce is still in its early stages, but as an early adopter of technology and a leading lifestyle brand, it is important to AEO to be among the first to offer it to customers as another way to interact with our brands."

Mobile devices are growing rapidly as a means for consumers to access the brands they love, particularly among AE`s demographic of 15- to 25-year-olds. Since November 2008, American Eagle Outfitters has had an opt-in SMS texting program in which customers sign up to receive targeted messages about special offers, new product introductions and promotions on their mobile phones. This program has been highly successful, with hundreds of thousands of customers opting in to date, and increasing daily.

Enabling customers to experience the functionality of the Web site, including commerce, takes the mobile experience to the next level. Customers can look up the store nearest them, complete with a detailed map and directions. They can access Wish Lists from their mobile devices to assist with shopping in the store, or purchase directly from their mobile device. They can also e-mail their Wish Lists directly to a parent, friend or relative.

Accessing the AE Web site from a mobile device is easy and requires no downloads or special Web address entries. The technology detects when a customer is accessing the site from a mobile device and serves up the appropriate Web experience that is customized for whatever device they happen to be using.

American Eagle Outfitters has partnered with Usablenet, a mobile Web platform for leading brands to offer this functionality. The company offers a universal solution, supporting all Web-enabled devices, carriers, mobile browsers, screen and file sizes, and technologies.

As part of its commitment to customer connection, AEO will continue to pursue mobile technology advancements that enable customers to interact with its brands. Dupuis continued, "American Eagle Outfitters` mobile strategy is designed to make our brands accessible to customers anytime, anywhere, as well as bridge the gap between online and stores. The ultimate goal is to create a seamless experience in which each channel-store, mobile and traditional online-work together to the mutual benefit of all three."