Consumers rejoice – it’s the dawn of a new era! Yours.

I just finished reading an Editorial: Ludicrous Myer statement ignores online retail facts by Grant Arnott @powerretail and while it’s infuriating to hear that big retailers such as Myer, Harvey Norman and DJ’s still don’t get the online channel, I think it’s the best thing ever, for consumers.

Whether these retailers really are just trying to lobby the government to impose GST on consumer online purchases from overseas or whether they really think building websites in China is the answer … in the mean time, transactions are happening, consumers are searching and new business is booming. J.C. Penney's online sales increased 12 percent from a year ago with strong traffic even on Thanksgiving Day. Total company November sales increased 7.2 percent to $1.85 billion.

Consumers have a choice and they are choosing with their wallets, they are choosing with their time and they choosing with what they feel is value for their hard earned money. No longer is the consumer at the perils of the haphazard customer service, department store retailers have traditionally given us. (I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve walked into a Myer store and seriously walked around for 20mins trying to find someone to hand my money over to … I know, I know, I’m a glutton for punishment).

Consumers are Googling, Facebooking and Tweeting and searching for products and services that fulfil their desires, wherever in the world that product can be sourced from. Per Grant’s editorial, in a survey of online shoppers conducted by The Leading Edge and recently presented with PayPal, “The main factor influencing shopping online on overseas websites was ‘Access to Goods and Services Not Available in Australia’ (32%)”. It’s an exciting time for consumers; the internet truly has made the world our oyster.

These retailers obviously do not see we are at a crux of a new way of doing business. How much money do overseas retailers have to make in running multi-channel business models before Australian majors understand the change in consumer behaviour. How many more graphs and statistics do research companies have to show them until they believe. What year will they eventually get ‘it’? ... I will make a prediction … they will get it in the year ‘too late’!

Go ahead create your websites in China and give your customers a 10% discount because there is no GST. Give it a good go, but you better come ready and you better back it up with good customer experience. I have one question though, why, if you are loosing business to overseas websites, would you see the solution to be to attack the very people you want to come back to your business? It makes no sense to persecute consumers with imposing GST on them. No matter what rules or extra charges you impose, someone out there will always find a way around it and they will share it with the world. Business is changing, shopping is global now, the internet gives consumers choice, you can not take that away from them. Instead give them a reason to come back to you, give them an experience they will be so delighted with, they will rave about you and tell their 250 friends on Facebook.

The answer is really so simple; Myer’s, DJ’s, Harvey Norman …. just ask your customer what they want. They have been buying from you for years, they liked your offering at one stage but you obviously stopped listening to them. Your customers will be more than happy to tell you. The information you get from them is your gold.

I don’t hear Woolworths (including, BIG W, Dick Smiths) complaining about Australians purchasing overseas and wanting to impose GST on consumers. I see them stepping up to the plate and saying ‘Batter up, let’s do this!’. They are taking their online and multichannel offerings seriously and trying to meet their customers’ evolving needs.

I am so excited for entrepreneurs (like me) and small businesses who actually care about their customers and want to give them a great experience. It is our turn to dominate. I can’t wait to see the creative ideas and unique products the new business community will come up with for their customers.

Consumers rejoice – it’s the dawn of a new era!

Facebook Launches 'Deals' and knocks out 2 birds with 1 social stone

Facebook Deals has launched and so have the campaigns run by large companies testing the waters. Take for instance, Gap, they are running a campaign where you can pick up a free pair of jeans to the first 10,000 people who check in via Deals to one of their stores. Then for the rest their fans that miss out, they are giving them a 40% off discount. Anecdotal evidence suggests this campaign did quite well with creating foot-traffic to their stores. They had 50 people lined up outside the SFO store before the store even opened. See More ...  

As location based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla have still not hit the mass market, Facebook Deals combined with Places, will be a big blow to these services making progress. Consumers can now simply skip signing up and using a new location service and jump straight to Facebook, where consumers are used to interacting with each other.

The gaming component on Foursquare and Gowalla is not carried over to the Facebook service but at the end of the day I think that is a non-issue as consumers are really just after the 'free stuff'. Facebook Deals also features a group discount function, where you and can purchase discounted products if you purchase as a group. This is a significant blow to the group buying sites we are seeing sprout up so quickly. Group buying has been around for a while but it is only just picking up now in Australia. With companies being able to offer their customers group discounts on Facebook without having to pay a fee to Facebook, why would companies even bother selling through these group buying sites now?

So Facebook Deals, combined with Facebook Places, knocks out the location based services and the group buying sites. For companies who already have a significant following on Facebook, why would you spread your efforts thin trying to build up a customer base on Foursquare or Gowalla, as well as the group buying sites, when you can concentrate your efforts and maximise your return from Facebook. Group buying sites may be good for acquiring new customers but you need to make sure you get that customer into your relationship management process or they'll be in for their discount, out the door and gone until the next freebie comes around.

Is Google Instant 3D for search results?

I've just been watching the launch video for Google's latest game changing tool Google Instant. Google Instant is touted as being able to provide even faster search results as you type in your topic of interest into the search box. Basically, as you type, results appear below. It is not currently available in Australia, but you can try it out on Google.com (you may need to log into your Google account to access this).




We could look at it something like:

• 1D search - this is the days when we typed a phrase into the search box and hit search for e.g. "latest weather forecast for Sydney Australia" [Search]. 
• 2D search  - this could be likened to typing in that same topic but just as "weather Sydney" and hitting [Enter]. We would then receive enhanced results based on Sydney Australia, as the server picked up the location of our IP address, and assumed we wanted the coming week's forecast so it displayed weather visuals for the next week, along with possible links to related news for that term and location.
• 3D search - in comes Google Instant, whereby you can edit your search on the fly as you type. So you may be looking for the latest movie and type in 'Iron Man 2' but as you type you see that this term results in movie trailer results so you extend your phrase to include 'movie t'. Then you receive all the movie times for your area based on where you are searching from. You possibly did 2 or 3 searches in that one search query.

For the most part, I think the new feature is quite exciting. I believe time will tell whether it is something that the Internet community will adopt or potentially find distracting. I am leaning more towards it being an adopted feature as we do not have to change the physical steps to type in a search, it is merely removing a step i.e. hitting the [Enter] key, to get results. If we want to revert to our existing way of using search we can, and there is the option of turning off Instant.

Historically, if we venture back to how we've used the Internet over the years, speed is definitely one of the greatest desires ... more bandwidth ... faster page loading .... so quicker access to a desired search results seems like a natural next step for search engines. I am not sure anyone has pinpointed exactly how this will impact SEO for the time being, except that it will keep SEO advisors on their toes. It seems that your organic ranking is now more important than ever.

I think my deciding factor will lay with my father - he is the complete opposite of a computer savvy searcher. About 6 months ago, I was showing him, how to find something on the Internet using Google. And while his typing was slow; one key press, looking down at the keyboard then looking up at the screen to check it was the correct key and then back down at the keyboard to press the next key and so on, he instantly took notice of the predictive search results Google was listing for him as he typed. In fact, I think my father's slow typing made it even easier for him to understand the predictive results feature. So my father will be my benchmark for Instant. If he finds it useful and easy to find the best fishing spots in NSW, then I'm sold :-)

iPad Rivals Emerging and Consumer Habits Converging

My expectations are increasing in the ways I want to access my digital content and demand it to be available to me in any form and any channel. And its happening at a rapid pace. I am sure by the end of this year, I will be accessing my data and communicating with my networks in ways I had never dreamed off at the start of the year. I am finding with my use of portable devices, such as my iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, laptop etc and even my web enabled TV, the gap that used to exist between my phone and my PC, is converging and I am working my way to having my content conveniently stored centrally but accessible by any of my many devices. Eventually it won't matter which device I am using, I can write that email, review that document, post that status update, set a meeting, chat with a friend, or take a note, wherever I may be, which could be waiting in line at the doctors office. 

ASUS have recently announced the introduction of their touch screen devices that will rival Apple's iPad. The two devices they are releasing are the 10-inch EP101TC and the 12-inch Eee Pad EP121. Both devices will come with a Windows operating system. The 12-inch will have the full Windows operating system installed and the 10-inch, which is designed to access cloud based applications, will run on Windows Embedded Compact 7 OS. 

ASUS are also touting an Eee Tablet, which they are likening more to a 'digital note-taker'. The tablet is designed to be used with a stylus for note taking, and interestingly comes with features such as a 2MP camera, Wi-Fi connectivity, a USB port to connect to PC's and a microSD card slot for data storage and access. The USB port and microSD slot are definitely two features that rival the restrictive iPad. It does sound like the ASUS tablet will be somewhere in between an eReader such as the Amazon Kindle, and the iPad with its array of productivity and entertainment apps.

I am suspecting many more announcements from electronics manufacturers releasing similar devices this year in order for them to remain competitive in this market. I have had my iPad for a few months now, and I also use an iPhone and a Blackberry. I had to check myself a couple of times today, because I was trying to use my Blackberry like it had a touch screen, and I was wondering why the link wasn't working. I am very quickly getting used to accessing my digital content via touch screen, and I am subconsciously expecting the same functionality from my other devices. In this fantastic world of innovation and technology, companies do not have a year up their sleeves to plan how they will remain competitive, they have to run like crazy because in 6 months time the world would have changed significantly again.

Sony unveils ultra thin screen that can wrap around a pencil

Sony has just released a prototype OLED display that is so thin and flexible it can be wrapped around a pencil WHILE displaying moving content.

There is a page of technical terms and product specifications that explains the technology in more detail (probably best to see Sony's press release for that), but the video of the prototype is what caught my attention (there were some issues with the embed code but the video is available from Sony's site).

I'm not quite sure about the practical applications for this technology as yet (given the video of the screen being wrapped around a pencil) but ... I suppose the breakthrough with it being ultra thin and flexible is that it could do amazing things for screen functionality on laptops, netbooks and other devices we are now using regularly for consuming content.

I would also imagine that because it can be rolled up, it could be likened to the rolling up of a traditional newspaper, except now, there is only one page that can display all the content. I'm sure there are also some interesting advertising applications the screen can be used for such as a promotional banner that can be safely rolled up at the end of the day, or even a portable presentation device, you could virtually roll out your own screen with your content ready to go. Not to mention the screen being matched with Internet enabled capabilities, where you could dynamically stream new content to the screen over the web.

The most significant symbol the screen represents is the similarity to one of the oldest forms of written content delivery devices ..... a paper scroll. How far we have come to be able to roll a moving image screen display into a similar fashion. I'm looking forward to seeing Sony release more information on the practical applications of this screen.

Westfield Group voyages into online retailing

In an interesting development for online retailing in Australia, Westfield Group has set sail to target eCommerce by extending their powerhouse retail business model into the world of retailing online. Westfield is reported to be in the final stages of negotiations with its retailers to include an online arm to their agreements. Details of exactly how the online business model will work and what functions the online store will offer, both Westfield tenants and consumers, is yet to be announced.

In the late 1990's, Executive Chairman, Frank Lowy, canned proposals to enter into online retailing. This was just before the Dot Com bust, so it was probably a good decision in hind sight. Although, the reason for abandoning online plans at the time was purely because Lowy did not want to corrode foot traffic into retailers stores operating out of Westfield shopping centers. Today, in 2010, Westfield executives see the huge potential of investing in online. 'We have been monitoring the use of technology closely for the past decade, continually improving our capacity and making greater use of the internet to promote our centres and connect with our customers,'' Mr Lowy said. ''We will push on with this evolution during the year ahead.''

This could potentially be a massive boost to online retailing in Australia. I say 'potentially' only because there is so much they could get wrong in between, from designing the right business model for tenants to the actual building of the online mall features which ultimately could mean their focus is diverted from the number one reason for going into retailing ... the consumer. The consumer has so many choices online, if the consumer can not get what they need from Westfield online combined with a great experience, they will go elsewhere within a few clicks. We are a few years behind in online retailing compared to the US and the UK, Westfield should learn from their mistakes and start from where these countries are, not where they were 3 years ago. If they apply the same core principles to physical retailing into their online shopping mall they could quite easily become the number one online retailer in Australia very quickly. Having a trusted name like Westfield operating an online store would boost consumer confidence into spending online and would also give Australians a local option, where currently, we are resorting to overseas websites simply because there is a lack of online presence on our soil.

I think is very exciting and will be watching this space with bated breath.

For more on this story see here.

The first 3 days with my iPad

So after much nail biting and restless waiting, I finally received my iPad. I've had it for 3 days now and I'm really enjoying the portability of all my content as well as access to all my internet based accounts and data. I'm still waiting for my 3G sim to activate, but since I've mostly been using it at home, it hasn't been a problem to get connectivity wirelessly.

I have so far spent most of my time setting up my content and synching it with iTunes, and finding great apps to install. I would probably say, that Tweetdeck has been the most useful app since I got it, but it has only been 3 days so let me review that again in a month and I'll tell you what my favourite app is then.

I was initially confused when I tried to open a PDF file with the iPad. There was really no easy way that I could find how to do this. Even though Apple have stated the iPad is PDF compatible. What I found was that you can only view a PDF file if you are opening it from an email attachment, or viewing one from a web page you have visited. After a little bit of research, I found a great app called Readdle, that not only allows you to view your PDF files from the app, but a whole range of other files including Office docs and excel files. So now I am happily reading my PDF files via Readdle and will explore other file types soon.

I was really disappointed with the range of books availble with iBook - Apples eBook store. I know it is only the first phase of the store, but for Australians there is not a huge selection to wet the appetite and hence, I have not been tempted to buy anything as yet.

And lastly, the best part was showing my 70 yr old father the iPad. He was amazed that he could view videos, photos and even listen to music all by the touch of a few buttons on this 'thin looking screen'. I think I might have gotten a little too excited because he couldn't handle much more and told me "I could never learn how to use that!" Well, we'll see about that. I've taught him how to use a Tom Tom, surf the internet, and I shall succeed at teaching him how to use an iPad ... stay tuned!

The future of product marketing - 3D meets augmented reality

http://www.digital-media.net.au/article/When-3D-meets-augmented-reality/516016.aspx

The future of online shopping!

This is an exciting meld of augmented reality, motion capture and social media. Try on clothes and create outfit projects, then purchase the outfit and take a snapshot and share with your friends on Facebook - all from your own computer using the web and a webcam.

Who knows, similar applications could feature in the next Wii or Play Station game you buy.

See the You Tube video

LAST GADGET STANDING CES 2010 WINNERS

This year at the CES show in LV there were two winners of the annual 'Last Gadget Standing' competition where the winners are chosen by public vote.

The online vote went to the SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector


And the live vote went to D-Link Boxee Box

SKIFF AND SPRINT RELEASE NEW SKIFF READER AT 2010 INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW

I am an avid observer of how the publishing world is on the brink of something huge with the wave of e-reader technology finally coming of age and bringing something convenient to use, coupled with a great offering, to consumers.

Skiff, an e-reading and advertising company backed by Hearst , recently announced the release of their latest device in e-Reader technology. The device is said to be the largest (11.5inches), thinnest (see pic), with highest display resolution (1200x1600pixels), and the entire screen surface is full touch screen.

See the press release.

The Skiff device will target newspaper and magazine based content. They are also providing manufactures with an RDK to help them create differentiation while they prototype and release new advancements in this space.

I will definitely be keeping an eye on Skiff's developments and their e-reading service platform this year.