Category: Featured News

Walmart looks to mobile shopping for a Black Friday advantage

| November 23, 2015

The retailer’s event will start early, at 6:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day, and will target smartphone users.

Walmart is hoping to get the very most out of the mobile shopping trend this holiday season by starting its event earlier and ensuring that consumers who are interested in buying gifts over their smartphones will find it very convenient to do so.

The retail giant plans to add thousands of deals to its mobile app and official website on Thanksgiving evening.

Walmart has predicted that mobile shopping activities will make up about 75 percent of the holiday traffic that it sees online, this year. For this reason, it has now made it possible for its mobile app to be used to discover products and make purchases in as few clicks as possible. They are even hoping that some consumers will be willing to make their smartphone based purchases directly through some of their strategically placed ads.

The mobile shopping app has also had a number of improvements made in order to better the in-store experience.

Walmart Mobile ShoppingFor instance, the mobile app has been designed to make it possible for shoppers to be able to browse a map of the store in which they are currently standing, in order to be able to discover where the Black Friday sales are situated in relation to their current physical location. The hope is that this will help to reduce some of the confusion that consumers face in trying to navigate the stores to find the sales, particularly on the busiest shopping days of the year.

Moreover, the mobile app will also make it possible for users to read reviews of the products they are seeing in front of them, through the use of their smartphones. Reviews have become an important part of the decision making process for many shoppers, so having them handy while in store could be a considerable advantage.

The mobile shopping app will also provide individuals with the ability to add products to a wish list that they can create and then share with other people. Walmart is also hoping to make it easy for consumers to check in once they’ve arrived so they can pick up what they’ve ordered in advance. The check in notifies employees at the location that the consumer has arrived, allowing them to have the order ready for the completion of the transaction.

Augmented reality owner’s manual coming to a Hyundai near you

| November 20, 2015

This has made the company the first among mainstream automakers to launch an AR technology based guide.

Hyundai has recently announced that before the close of the year, it will become the first among the mainstream automakers to launch mobile app that provides augmented reality features to its owner’s manual.

The Hyundai Virtual Guide mobile app is the automaker’s strategy for bringing its owner’s manual to today’s consumer.

This augmented reality mobile app has been created to convert the traditional vehicle owner’s manual into one that can be enhanced through the use of a smartphone or tablet. The app will provide owners with additional how-to information for properly maintaining their vehicles, about common types of repairs and to help drivers to better understand the features of their cars. To start, the application will be compatible with only one Hyundai model, but over time it will be launched to function with other models as well.

At the start, the augmented reality features will work with the 2015 Hyundai Sonata user manual.

Augmented Reality - HyundaiThere are already 45 major features of the 2015 Sonata that can be recognized by the Virtual Guide mobile app. This is a free application and can be downloaded by iOS and Android based device users from the Apple App Store and from Google Play.

Hyundai decided on the features that it would spotlight with the AR technology through the application of the results of a quality consumer survey. It focused in on the features that were considered to be the most difficult to use so they would be worked into the Virtual Guide for added user support. The hope is that through the additional descriptive abilities of AR technology, it will be easier for vehicle owners to understand their features and will be able to use them more effectively.

The augmented reality app is also made up of 82 different how-to videos, as well as six 3D overlay images that can be viewed overtop of the real-life image of their actual vehicle when the parts of the car are scanned with the smartphone or tablet camera. Among the areas that can be scanned are the dash and engine bay. The application currently provides over 50 info guides.