One the biggest challenges facing brands today is that consumers are bombarded with promotions. It’s anybody’s guess that an average shopper has tens of products they want to monitor, as they wait for the right time to buy. Add to that the fact that shoppers also have multiple wish list items – these are items they’ve seen but are not ready to buy yet due to price, availability, timing or other reasons.
So far, the meaning of contextual location aware shopping was treated as another channel used by marketers to bombard (or communicate if you will) with the consumer. This was on the lines of “tell the shopper what’s on sale when the shopper enters the store or vicinity”.
However with 
the latest developments launched by Apple in their iOS 8, and indeed with Samsung doing the same, retailers can now almost create a loyalty platform leveraging the capabilities provided by these device manufacturers
Consider the scenario where a consumer, while in a train, receives a promotional email on their iPhone from Banana Republic, finds an item of interest and moves the items to their wishlist. The wishlist is common across retailers and specific to the consumer. The consumer is also able to browse and review the same items on their iPad when they are relaxing after work at home. Next time, on a trip to the mall, the wishlist app automatically reminds the consumer to try & pick up the item from Banana Republic. The discount is automatically applied, and the payment is seamless.
We leverage these capabilities to make this happen:
1. The iOS 8 handoff feature that allows data to be moved between different devices (if done over wifi, the handoff feature is not really required).
2. The app notifications capability
3. The one touch fingerprint enabled payment mechanism
My guess is that even though the handoff feature seems to be great addition, it will eventually not be critical in enabling realistic business scenarios. And even though Apple has introduced NFC capabilities, it probably is just a way to maintain competitive parity, because in the long haul, wifi / internet based payments and interactions will prevail.
This retailing scenario is not too far way in the future, and in fact some retailers may already be leveraging this. It’s an exciting proposition, and something I’m sure most shoppers will welcome.
Will appreciate your thoughts as well.
Photo credit: <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/forbesoste/13905671668/”>ForbesOste</a> / <a href=”http://foter.com”>Foter</a> / <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>CC BY-NC-ND</a>