Author: BWild

Mobile commerce accounts for 17.4 percent of online shopping revenues

| August 21, 2013

The contribution of personalization has made a considerable difference in the channel’s popularity.

According to a whitepaper that was recently released by Medio, this year, mobile commerce is contributing 17.4 percent to the total online shopping revenues, and that is only expected to rise.

The report went on to predict that the channel will represent 25 percent of online revenues by 2017.

Medio pointed out that retailers are finding mobile commerce to be appealing in a number of ways, and these are helping to make it more effective so that they can generate more revenues by way of smartphone and tablet shoppers. It stated that the channel gives companies the chance to collect a considerable amount of useful data from consumers. Though the majority have yet to figure out how to use this information to its greatest potential, there remains a significant amount of value that can be pulled from big data.

The mobile commerce whitepaper showed that real-time tools and predictive analytics assist in personalization.

Mobile Commerce RevenueIt showed that the information gleaned through mobile commerce can, in turn, be applied to personalizing the experience offered by the retailer to encourage the consumer to shop for the first time, and to return once more when similar products are needed.

In terms of personalization and its importance, the whitepaper stated that “A search for a product might begin on a smartphone, while order fulfillment is finalized on a PC or tablet. Being able to identify the same user across devices is necessary to create a personalized relationship; the foundation of sophisticated and intelligent user segmentation starts with being able to deduce when two users are in fact the same person.”

Mobile commerce does not typically allow for the use of cookies. Therefore, to compensate for that, it is important for companies to use advanced customer segmentation, said the whitepaper. This requires the use of matching algorithms with greater sophistication. This practice uses a form of predictive analytics, which can assist in targeting users more effectively, at the times that they are most likely to be interested and receptive to product information, discount opportunities, and calls to action.

Gadgets startup creates futuristic mobile devices

| August 15, 2013

This new company is coming up with products that you’d expect James Bond to carry.

A startup company called Thalmic Labs, from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has started taking pre-orders for some of its gadgets which have been described as futuristic and have been compared to the types of devices that 007 would be seen using in his movies.

Among the products receiving the most attention is the Myo armband that it has had available for pre-order for a few months.

This particular gadget from Thalmic Labs picks up the forearm muscles’ electrical activities – particularly the movements for the control of the wrist and fingers as they gesture and perform various tasks – in order to translate those signals into commands. Stephen Lake, the co-founder and CEO of Thalmic, said that the advantage of the Myo armband over motion capture devices – such as Kinect from Microsoft or the Leap Motion Controller – is that users are not required to wave their hands around in front of a camera.

This gadget requires a smaller amount of workspace and less dramatic movements.

Lake explained that when cameras are used by gadgets, they need a larger workspace in which to function, and they are able to detect only exaggerated movements, or on the other hand, require a very tiny workspace with the fine type of movements that exist only in areas such as surgery. But the Myo is capable of detecting large arm motions as well as more subtle gestures of the fingers, moreover the user is not required to remain in one place and face a single direction.

He stated that what the company is most interested in achieving in terms of the gadgets that it produces, “is the next evolution of smart devices–in getting away from sitting in front of a computer.”

At the moment, the applications for the Myo have to do with using the armband as a replacement for other types of controllers, such as to control a tool or weapon in a video game, to turn up the volume on a computer, or to flick the wrist in order to move to the next slide in a presentation. Lake also added that “We’ve also played with things like the Sphero robotic ball and a remote-controlled helicopter drone.”