Comments on: Does Online Shopping Need a High Street Presence? http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/ Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino on mobile technology. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:56:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: top christmas gifts http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131443 top christmas gifts Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:36:16 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131443 Very nice and interesting post. Technology really has it's advantages and disadvantages as well. Very nice and interesting post. Technology really has it's advantages and disadvantages as well.

]]> By: Russell Buckley http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131061 Russell Buckley Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:28:39 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131061 JT - good points. Thanks for the comments everyone. Russell JT – good points. Thanks for the comments everyone.

Russell

]]> By: JT http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131060 JT Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:21:46 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131060 To add to this, I wonder what the book purchase distribution is. Likely a 80-20, in 80% of books are purchased by 20% of customers, maybe even more extreme. Amazon has been a prime (no pun intended) example of reaching out to the general public, but securing the 20% most active book buyers into a sustained and simple billing relationship is surely a nice place to start. To add to this, I wonder what the book purchase distribution is. Likely a 80-20, in 80% of books are purchased by 20% of customers, maybe even more extreme. Amazon has been a prime (no pun intended) example of reaching out to the general public, but securing the 20% most active book buyers into a sustained and simple billing relationship is surely a nice place to start.

]]> By: JT http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131059 JT Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:17:21 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131059 Cheers Russel. This is quite an interesting issue. The kindle basically renewed my love for good books as I was until then spending way too much time with RSS feeds that were basically saying the same thing. IMHO the book has been a VERY resilient content in the physical world; its clear opposite is music. I think keys to its resilience have more to do with the physical relationship with the object and the convenience of a 'low tech/no power' solution. I dont see discovery/recommendation as the prime reason for the physical locations' survival, but rather the resilience of the physical book, the important inventory requirement, and its unability to translate well in the digital world (until now?). The kindle and other solutions seem to address those issues. Something big, however is the social element, which is arguably absent even in most high street book stores: a site like goodreads.com aggregates book lovers, gives them a structured place to communicate; it might do more to discovery or recommendation than anything in a physical location. I wouldn't be surprised if goodreads (or a competitor) were scooped by Amazon in the near future. Cheers Russel. This is quite an interesting issue. The kindle basically renewed my love for good books as I was until then spending way too much time with RSS feeds that were basically saying the same thing.
IMHO the book has been a VERY resilient content in the physical world; its clear opposite is music. I think keys to its resilience have more to do with the physical relationship with the object and the convenience of a ‘low tech/no power’ solution.
I dont see discovery/recommendation as the prime reason for the physical locations’ survival, but rather the resilience of the physical book, the important inventory requirement, and its unability to translate well in the digital world (until now?). The kindle and other solutions seem to address those issues.
Something big, however is the social element, which is arguably absent even in most high street book stores: a site like goodreads.com aggregates book lovers, gives them a structured place to communicate; it might do more to discovery or recommendation than anything in a physical location. I wouldn’t be surprised if goodreads (or a competitor) were scooped by Amazon in the near future.

]]> By: Russell Buckley http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131058 Russell Buckley Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:11:54 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131058 JT - you're welcome to have a different opinion, though the "no evidence" card doesn't cut much ice with me. Naturally, there's no evidence of something happening before it happens :-) I agree that technology should be the answer, but in reality, it's just not good enough - at the moment. The Netflix prize http://www.netflixprize.com//leaderboard has shown pretty consistently that tech only delivers incremental improvements in recommendation effectiveness and what we really need is a giant leap forward. Blending the physical with the virtual might do that. Equally, it might not - but then we won't know until we try. But relying on the current direction and trajectory will continue to deliver ho-hum results. How would you suggest it could be improved by a radical thought? Russell JT – you’re welcome to have a different opinion, though the “no evidence” card doesn’t cut much ice with me. Naturally, there’s no evidence of something happening before it happens :-)

I agree that technology should be the answer, but in reality, it’s just not good enough – at the moment. The Netflix prize http://www.netflixprize.com//leaderboard has shown pretty consistently that tech only delivers incremental improvements in recommendation effectiveness and what we really need is a giant leap forward.

Blending the physical with the virtual might do that. Equally, it might not – but then we won’t know until we try. But relying on the current direction and trajectory will continue to deliver ho-hum results.

How would you suggest it could be improved by a radical thought?

Russell

]]> By: JT http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131055 JT Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:16:37 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131055 Discovery, like it or not, is slowly leaving room for recommendation, social or algorithm. For Amazon, the downsides of a physical presence far outweigh the slim upsides compared to what is currently within grasp with the kindle and Amazon's website. There is no evidence of a resurgence of content in digital form in physical locations (except for iTunes gift cards, but hardly helpful with discovery). "If you liked this comment, you might also like..." Discovery, like it or not, is slowly leaving room for recommendation, social or algorithm. For Amazon, the downsides of a physical presence far outweigh the slim upsides compared to what is currently within grasp with the kindle and Amazon’s website.
There is no evidence of a resurgence of content in digital form in physical locations (except for iTunes gift cards, but hardly helpful with discovery).
“If you liked this comment, you might also like…”

]]> By: Carnival of the Mobilists # 207 | Volker on Mobile http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131050 Carnival of the Mobilists # 207 | Volker on Mobile Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:05:48 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131050 [...] Russell Buckley looks at the benefits but also disadvantages of a retail experience online, on mobile and on the high street. He looks at this from the perspective of search vs discovery and, alas, the mobile being, well, mobile, he predicts some impact. Suffice to say, it involves the renaissance of the (much beloved by me) local bookstore! Russell’s post is here. [...] [...] Russell Buckley looks at the benefits but also disadvantages of a retail experience online, on mobile and on the high street. He looks at this from the perspective of search vs discovery and, alas, the mobile being, well, mobile, he predicts some impact. Suffice to say, it involves the renaissance of the (much beloved by me) local bookstore! Russell’s post is here. [...]

]]> By: C. Enrique Ortiz http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2010/01/14/does-online-shopping-need-a-high-street-presence/comment-page-1/#comment-131040 C. Enrique Ortiz Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:17:06 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/?p=3415#comment-131040 Interesting post Russell. A real use-case was me, when I bought a Blu-Ray player a month ago, and I used mobile to get the retailer to lower their price (i.e. price-match to Amazon). So mobile not only allow users to compare prizes but also get better prices right on the store! by "forcing" price matching! Here mobile instead of taking the customer to another cheaper store (online or not), the customer (me in this case) stayed and bought the product right there. I thought this was interesting and how mobile will and is or should be forcing retailers to rethink and deal with this new kind of scenarios... ceo Interesting post Russell.

A real use-case was me, when I bought a Blu-Ray player a month ago, and I used mobile to get the retailer to lower their price (i.e. price-match to Amazon).

So mobile not only allow users to compare prizes but also get better prices right on the store! by “forcing” price matching! Here mobile instead of taking the customer to another cheaper store (online or not), the customer (me in this case) stayed and bought the product right there.

I thought this was interesting and how mobile will and is or should be forcing retailers to rethink and deal with this new kind of scenarios…

ceo

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