Should you start thinking about selling your products for tablet users?

In September 2011, almost 1/2 of tablet users made purchases using their device. 12% of Internet-using Americans own tablets.We are also seeing an increase of purchases made on tablets than on smart phones.

Here’s an eye-opener out of Website Magazine about Tablet usage:

“Mobile advertising company Jumptap, in conjunction with comScore, recently released Wave Two of its ongoing research project titled Understanding Mobile Audience, which “shows that tablet owners are almost as likely as PC and laptop owners to use their tablet device to make purchases.” According to the study, a whole 63 percent of tablet owners make purchases on their devices; this is compared to 83 percent of PC owners who shop on their computers.

How do you know if your customers use tablets?

Right now, here are some facts:

60% of tablet users are male
48% are 18-34 years old
43% have households incomes of $50,000 or more
47% have created a wish list on their tablet in the past month

Scan over the flyer below, there’s really interesting finds!

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Yelp wants to get on the action of the discounted deals and has started offering Yelp Deals to businesses here in Portland, Oregon. A few weeks ago, they announced this in their newsletter, so I logged in to check it out.  I thought I might try it out for my web hosting plans, but hesitated until I got a chance to write this blog post and research it more.

Here’s the scoop:

• *Yelp will retain 30% of the discounted price from each deal sold.
• *Yelp will pay you monthly, you Yelp Deal will appear on your Yelp page immediately after you sign and create it.

*The Deals are showcased on the top of each business’ Yelp page. The regular price and discounted percentage will also be listed so your customers know what deal they are getting. The Deal will also be highlighted in your search results and a dedicated Deals section of yelp.

*All of Deals are accessible via iPhone and Androids, just like Groupon and LivingSocial. The app allows you to see which deals are offered at nearby restaurants, etc. This is a direct competitor for Groupon Now, a mobile app wanting to accomplish the same thing.

The one advantage Yelp has is that its apps are already popular and used by over 4.5 million people a month. Groupon is still struggling to find that audience with Groupon Now. Slight differences in Yelp Deals approach is announcing deals 1-2x a week, not daily and a slow roll-out. The Deals are only available in 12 cities right now, with new ones being added.

I’ve decided to wait and see how my colleagues do with Yelp Deals, I want to be sure to offer something I don’t mind discounting, especially if there is a payoff through marketing and getting the word out.

It’s gonna be interesting to see which company races along to offer the most deals. Will this trend continue on how we do business day to day? Will customer always expect deals from small businesses, even when we are out of the recession?

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There are a lot of change happening in the world of mobile. No one would have believed you could make payments with a phone 10 years ago. I hope you enjoy reading about these as much as I did, it’s pretty exciting to see how the world is changing and adapting with different technologies.

As Ferris Buhler said it best “Yup, life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and take a look around once in a while, you might miss it”.

Digital Stamps: The Denmark Post now has digital stamps available and can be purchased via text message. A simple code is sent to the customer and it can be written on an envelope instead of the old fashioned stamp.

Euro McDonald’s are adding a point of sale touch screen to 7,000 European stores. The screens include swipers for cards, reducing the need for human cashiers and speeding up transactions. Burger King is also following suit.

Google Wallet, an Android App, allows someone to make payments with their phone. Users pay by tapping their phone on a Mastercard paypass terminal. Users can also receive offers and loyalty point with the app.

In developing countries, mobile is playing a huge role. South Africa’s First National Bank has a service that allows customers to take out cash from an ATM using their mobile phone. The customers receive a text message from the bank with a temporary pin that allows them to use an ATM within 30 min.

A Spanish based clothing company called N-spired Story encourages people to send in interesting photos, stories, news or videos. One of those stories is printed as an image on an short-run edition t-shirt each month. Users can then use their phone to link to the story online.

Don’t have time to shop? How about for just 4 seconds? That’s the amount of time a sale is listed. A Swedish business called “Papercut” launched a site called Speedsale, offering discounted books, DVDs, and more for only 4 seconds and then the sale is over!

Don’t have time to read all the reviews of a product? Just Buy This One takes care of it by gathering an average rating of product reviews and offers a single recommendation. Includes 9 categories overall.

Want to buy your friend a drink without being in the bar? You can in Germany, a company there called frinXX lets users buy drinks at any bar and you don’t have to be there. A code is generated from the transaction and sent to the recipient’s cellphone with a custom message.

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Digital coupons and social buying are all the rage right now. Should we thank Groupon for all the excitement and hub-bub? I’ve had multiple clients ask me what’s up with Groupon and if it’s changing the way we do business online.

First, it’s important to know that Groupon is the fastest growing company in history, attracting lots of competitors such as LivingSocial. Groupon rejected Google’s $6 billion offer and is now reporting to prepare for a $25 billion IPO.

Secondly, does everyone benefit from Groupon? Not always. Some businesses have been hurt by using the daily deal as a way to bring in new customers. Some businesses have had new customers walk through the door and only use their coupon and not purchase additional items. Another big question is loyalty and trust. Many establishments like salons and beauty industry have customers who have been with them for years and don’t always believe in attracting new customers through coupons or deals. Some folks out there wouldn’t go to just anyone for a haircut, massage or waxing.

Groupon isn’t fading from the spotlight anytime soon. They have something new up their sleeves! CNN recently released an article called “Groupon’s ambitious plan to change how and when we eat” – Groupon is releasing a new mobile app called “Groupon Now“. If a user opens up the app, they are presented with two buttons: “I’m hungry” and “I’m bored”. Clicking either button will list timely daily deals based on their location. The offer of buy $5, get $10 worth of food still stands, but they aren’t one time offers. The restaurant can choose when they want to deals to happen. For example: A restaurant does a great job on Friday night, but wants to drum up more business on Tuesday nights. The app allows the restaurant to promote the deal for the slow Tuesdays. It’s clever because it gives food establishments a chance to manage their perishables and not waste food and money.

What are your thoughts about Groupon? Do you use it or its competitors to purchase deals? Have you used it for your business?

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Imagine you are a vendor at a conference & you need a way to accept credit cards & process them quickly. Before your options were:

1) collecting credit card #s and processing them over the phone, but taking a risk if the credit cards were expired or bad

2) getting a virtual terminal and paying extra costs to process credit cards in real time

Enter 2010, a new world for Point of Sale with your mobile device. Here’s a just few of the new players that are part of the new wave of virtual POS.

Square is based on a tiny, square-shaped credit card readers — each roughly the size of a quarter that plugs into your iPhone. Along with it,  you use an iPhone application to authorize a credit card, capture a signature, and even email a receipt. They also have a magistripe reader that plugs into your iPhone.

Read the rest of this entry »

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