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Start-Up Watch COD: Retailigence Connects Mobile Apps to Local Retail Inventories 0

Local shopping apps are increasing in number and popularity. Essentially what they do is help consumers understand where they can obtain an item in their immediate vicinity.

A company called helps retailers, brands and agencies communicate local availability of products to web and mobile apps via its free and open API. It connects inventory management systems to the mobile web, so that as users of apps search for products, partner stores’ inventory can appear in the results. It’s a cloud-based Data as a Service (DaaS) solution providing seamless access to thousands of retailers and a host of end-user applications.

Say you are a shopper in the market for a Nikon Coolpix S5100. You use your phone to find out where to get one. When you make your query in a shopping app, Retailigence facilitates listings by providing data that they have aggregated from the inventory management systems of local stores. If a nearby retailer stocked the item and had one in stock, Retailigence would ensure that the app listed that local retailer in the results.

Here’s a vid that explains the concept:

from on .

Retailigence currently has access to the inventory of more than 65,000 retail locations, and works with most of the major back-end inventory management systems. In fact, Retailigence recently announced partnerships with ERP and POS systems like ERPLY and B2B Soft. The total number of products in their database exceeds 5M, across a large number of retail categories like electronics, apparel, books, games, toys, etc.

Without using a service like Retailigence, brick-and-mortar retailers are generally left out of online and mobile search results. Even though shoppers may be standing right outside a store , they won’t be aware that the store can fill their needs. Instead, what they’d get in their search results would likely be dozens of dotcom purchase options. While many online searchers favor dotcom buying, there are millions of people who would want to purchase today in a store nearby. The local Chamber of Commerce likes that. Not to mention that shop owners.

To continue with the camera example, I did a search for a Nikon Coolpix S5100 on my Android phone. Google returned only one listing on the first page that offered a local purchase option, and even then I would have had to query that retail chain’s database on their site to check availability in stores near me. That anecdotal search demonstrates the need for local retailers to get connected. A host of apps have been built for this purpose. Retailigence powers many of these apps with rock solid inventory info.

For brands and agencies, the opportunity to partner with Retailigence has clear benefits. Marketers can ensure that Retailigence lists local retailers that stock their products. By driving more visitors to those locations, they can drive sales and be a better partner to retail organizations.

For retailers, participating in platforms like Retailigence should be a no brainer. For most stores and chains, the biggest challenge of all is getting folks in the door. Retailigence can make a big difference in their foot traffic. And chances are, those feet will be propelling souls anxious to plunk down credit cards immediately.

I’ll close with the words of Jeremy Geiger, the CEO: “Smartphones and location-based services are changing the very face of traditional retail. We are excited to be at the forefront of this revolution by driving high-intent foot traffic directly to the retailer’s doors. Our ability to deliver location-relevant inventory data to apps is not only making apps more functional and useful, it’s also providing retailers (large and small) a way to be visible at the right time and at the right place.”

Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.

Posted on: 04-23-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

COD: Wishpond – Putting virtual in service of local bricks and mortar 0

The percentage of retail driven through ecommerce continues to grow, but it’s still in single digits. That being said, there is no doubt that consumers are using the web to do research on products, especially for more considered purchases.

Wishpondis out to drive more sales to brick and mortar, using geolocation to help small and large retailers make consumers aware of what they have in stock and ready to take home today.

Imagine you are looking for a fairly high end Nikon. You’ve done your research online, but now you are ready to buy. You COULD make a purchase through Amazon or Fry’s online, or you could fire up Wishpond and see if it is available anywhere nearby. Wishpond lets you search local retailers’ inventory to see who might have the item and for how much. Let’s say three retailers report having the item. You can then consider the trade offs of price, reputation, and distance to see if one of these retailers might be a better place to buy than an online store.

There are benefits for all of the players in the retailing ecosystem:

•For consumers, Wishpond gives an easy way to compare prices and the opportunity to get the good today. They can also “make a wish” meaning that they can offer to buy something at a certain price and see if any local retailer bites.
•For retailers, it provides the opportunity to spend ad dollars on people actually looking to buy, and a chance to level the playing field by communicating local availability of an item.
•For brands, the opportunity to communicate participating retailers gives another means of supporting your brick and mortar distribution system, and a way of growing sales. They could also advertise on the platform to impact buying decisions
•For publishers, the platform provides the opportunity to grow relevance to readers by making things like product recommendations more actionable. Not only can you recommend an item, you can now show consumers exactly where they might want to buy it. As such, it might also be a good advertiser lead gen tool.

This is an ads-supported platform. Retailers can join for free, or they can join and take advantage of the opportunity to do hyper local and highly targeted advertising to very likely buyers. They can even package up sales leads of people looking for an item.

We all know that the big retail winners over the past couple decades have been big box stores. But this platform levels the field, enabling even small retailers to capitalize on the technology and sales opportunities it surfaces. Though of course big box stores are also welcome to participate. And no doubt are and will.

One of the things that makes this a compelling platform is that Wishpond can plug into existing inventory management programs so the retailer doesn’t need to manually input items and manage inventory levels. Instead, it’s inventory speaks for itself.

There are other resources in this space, not least Milo and Google Blue Dot. But one of the ways that Wishpond stands out is that a business or pub can participate easily using an embeddable widget. These widgets can search inventory, show local locations, and even be embedded into distributed presences in social media. They also have an open API, which is helping them differentiate by shaping themselves as a platform rather than a retail search destination.

BTW, their blog is also an excellent resource if you just want to learn more about local and shopping and retailing in today’s environment.

Posted on: 03-21-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Start-Up Watch COD: Apture makes pubs sticky as fly paper 0

Thanks to for publishing this first.

While most of the posts on this blog will be from the perspective of a marketer, occasionally I want to showcase some fascinating developments in pub-side solutions. I love content sites, both as a user and as someone who wants to reward content providers with revenue sufficient to keep them…contenting. As it were. Today is one of those days when I want to focus on the pub-side.

Trying to keep a viewer around is a challenge for many publishers. There appear to be about 10,000 places MINIMUM to find content on any topic. Relatively quickly you’ll find users wanting different types of information on any topic. Photos, historical perspective. Where to buy. If we all wanted the same things, you could simply include them in the content. But we don’t.

And so even great content can lose eyeballs relatively quickly.

is out to change that dynamic. It makes it possible for consumers to see more and publishers to show more while staying on the same page. There are two ways to access Apture’s semantic search and content display capabilities:

The Apture toolbar gives users the opportunity to get their fix of whatever related content they might want without leaving the content they are reading. Whether or not a site participates in Apture, the toolbar can provide related links of information. Apture gathers additional information through open APIs from leading content sources like Wikipedia, as well as Google search results.

Here’s a little video demo of Apture Toolbar in action. As you can see, it links the reader with multiple types of content related to a topic, from Wikipedia links to videos, photos, maps, etc.

For publishers, Apture gives consumers the opportunity to highlight any text on their pages and instantly get Apture-style search results. When they arrive on your pages, a little flag appears telling them that they can highlight and go deep.

When they do their highlight, the Apture window appears and provides a list of related links from YOUR site PLUS open API content from a base set of sites PLUS Google search results for sites farther afield. There are no multimedia restrictions — the consumer can view other text, slide shows, even video in user initiated windows that appear in front of your content. Here’s another video — this one shows the publisher benefits:

According to Apture’s research, their platform can grow time on a page by 2-3X, and pages consumed by 1.5-2X. Absolutely nothing to sneeze at in the battle for more page and ad views. The cost to the consumer is free, and there are two ways pubs can pay. They can use a basic free service that includes ads sold by Apture, or pay for an ad-free experience.

There are a couple of differences versus the contextual ad solutions like Kontera and Vibrant. With those models, the ad platform identifies the specific words that can be explored, and then shares revenue with the site for ad actions. This might have effects on time spent with content, but that’s not it’s primary goal. With this model, the choice of terms is up to the user, and the experience stays on (or over) the page rather than through a redirect.

There is a lot of innovation going on in the content space. Ensuring that producers of quality content can make more money — and thereby produce even MORE quality content – should be everyone’s goal.

Posted on: 03-12-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

COD: Apture lets readers go deep without leaving the page 0

Trying to keep a viewer around is a challenge for many publishers. There appear to be about 10,000 places MINIMUM to find content on any topic. You may publish the definitive piece on a subject, but relatively quickly you’ll find users wanting different types of information on any topic. Photos, historical perspective. Where to buy. Whatever it is. If we all wanted the same things, you could simply include them in the content. But we don’t.
And so your content loses eyeballs.
is out to change that dynamic. It makes it possible for consumers to see more and publishers to show more while staying on the same page. There are two ways to access Apture’s semantic search and content display capabilities:
The Apture toolbar gives users the opportunity to get their fix of whatever related content they might want without leaving the content they are reading. Whether or not a site participates in Apture, the toolbar can provide related links of information. Apture gathers additional information through open APIs from leading content sources like Wikipedia, as well as Google search results.
Here’s a little video demo of Apture Toolbar in action. As you can see, it links the reader with multiple types of content related to a topic, from Wikipedia links to videos, photos, maps, etc.
For publishers, Apture provides the opportunity to give consumers the opportunity to highlight any text on your pages and instantly get Apture search results. When they arrive on your pages, a little flag appears telling them that they can highlight and go deep.
When they do their highlight, the Apture window appears and provides a list of related links from YOUR site as well as open API content from a base set of sites and Google search results for sites farther afield. There are really no media restrictions — the consumer can view other text, slide shows, even video in user initiated windows that appear in front of your content. Here’s another video — this one shows the publisher benefits:
According to Apture’s research, their platform can grow time on a page by 2-3X, and pages consumed by 1.5-2X. Absolutely nothing to sneeze at in the battle for more page and ad views!
The cost to the consumer is free, and there are two ways to “pay” for publishers. They can use a basic free service that includes ads sold by Apture, or pay for an ad-free experience.
There are a couple of differences versus the contextual ad solutions like Kontera and Vibrant. With those models, the ad platform identifies the specific words that can be explored, and then shares revenue with the site for ad actions. This might have effects on time spent with content, but that’s not it’s primary goal. With this model, the choice of terms is up to the user, and the experience stays on (or over) the page rather than through a redirect.
There is a lot of innovation going on in the content space. This solution seems a powerful way to ensure that producers of quality content can make more money — and thereby produce even MORE quality content.

Posted on: 01-14-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer