Jenn.Beach

Virtual window shopping for groceries shows mobile innovation

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Virtual window shopping for groceries shows mobile innovation

Online supermarket Ocado has tried an innovative pop-up shop approach to raise awareness of the ease of use of their mobile shopping application. Installing a temporary display in a London shopping centre containing pictures and barcodes of products, Ocado hopes to show shoppers the ease of using their mobile to shop for groceries.

Ocado’s mission statement is: To revolutionise the way people shop forever, by giving them a uniquely innovative and greener alternative to traditional grocery shopping.

Ocado is the only dedicated online supermarket in the UK and the largest dedicated online supermarket by turnover in the world.

Launching the world’s first transactional iPhone app for supermarket shopping in 2009, Ocado have already proven to be innovators in this space.

The mobile shopping experience is already used by 15% of Ocado’s customers – the temporary pop-up shop should introduce the concept to yet more customers.

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Rush to buy Kate’s Reiss dress crashes website – but clever social media alternatives to keep shoppers happy

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Rush to buy Kate's Reiss dress crashes website - but clever social media alternatives to keep shoppers happy

The Reiss website crashed after Kate Middleton was seen wearing the Reiss ‘Shola’ dress due to the volume of traffic and fashionistas seeking to buy their own version of the £175 ($268) dress. The site has reportedly crashed twice, and appeared to still be down for multiple days following.

Clearly this is frustrating for the retailer hoping to leverage the media attention that such great publicity generates, and for shoppers who are commenting on their Facebook page about their inability to purchase the item.

Smartly, Reiss is providing alternatives through other social media, with their Twitter feed initially explaining about the website crash, and thanking everyone for their patience. The most recent tweets cleverly provide alternative routes to purchase, advising of the phone numbers to call in UK or USA to purchase the dress through that channel instead.

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Dick Smith Mobile Website Review

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Dick Smith Mobile Website Review

Dick Smith recently announced the launch of their new mobile website, we’ve had a good look at the site’s capability and functionality and were also interested to read the comments made by Daniel McMahon, Head of eCommerce at Dick Smith in a recent interview with Power Retail. Dick Smith have been watching the growth of handset sales through their own shops and the growth in the percentage of customers using mobile devices to browse Dick Smith’s website.

Dick Smith analysed customer behaviour and identified that most customers on their site use their mobile to research products. The mobile site has been designed to meet this primary need.

A key decision any retailer needs to make when defining their mobile strategy is whether to create a mobile website, a mobile app or potentially both. Dick Smith decided to build a mobile website to provide mobile access for the range of handsets being used online, ensuring they provide mobile access to the broadest range of mobile customers.

The Dick Smith mobile homepage is dominated by a list of offers and on site search. Mobile has obvious limitations to present large amounts of data or extensive directory structures. On site Search helps customers find products quickly and easily and is key to an effective customer experience on a site with a large range of products and categories.

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