M-commerce Set for Lift-off

Mike Phillips — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:16:00 GMT

A few separate stories this week point directly to mobile commerce, and show that many businesses are preparing for the next big e-commerce trend.

To start, a report by Arc Worldwide titled, "Marketing to the Mobile Shopper," finds that out of 1,800 U.S. mobile phone owners, half of them use their devices to augment their shopping both in stores and online. "Heavy" mobile shoppers use their devices vigorously, while "light" mobile shoppers only use the device for tasks such as looking up store hours and locations -- still considered a mobile shopping experience. According to the report, light shoppers will develop into heavy shoppers, so retailers need to prepare for both.

Next, Digby, a service that helps retailers design and deploy m-commerce sites and apps, announced that they raised another $8 million in funding, bringing their total to $16 million. Some of Digby's high-profile clients include Costco and The Home Depot. They also have a deal with AT&T to power its m-commerce software platform for developers.

Finally, Adobe Scene7 announced that Very.co.uk (UK's largest online and home shopping retailer) is using Adobe Scene7 to make their entire catalog viewable and interactive across mobile devices, including video capabilities (more than 1,800 of them), and functions such as tapping to change the color of a product. Very UK is the first retailer in the UK to use the system.

"We want to provide the best online experience possible for our customers by ensuring the experience on our new mobile app is as engaging as our websites," said Neal Preece, e-Commerce Director at Shop Direct.

M-commerce is in a natural evolution process, as devices become more capable and users more savvy. The "Year of the Mobile" is already in full swing (maybe even passed) and the "Year of M-commerce" is approaching. How will you prepare?

Adobe Revs Up Scene7 Cross-media Platform

Linc Wonham — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Adobe Systems Inc. has expanded its leading hosted cross-media publishing platform to further automate the production, management and delivery of dynamic creative media for e-commerce and multi-channel marketing companies. The updates to Adobe Scene7 will provide these businesses with unique new editing and template-based production capabilities, including new user-facing, real-time authoring and Web preview, as well as overall tighter desktop integration.

“Businesses are constantly being challenged to deliver richer, more personalized experiences with the same or fewer creative and technical resources, making automation and cost-savings critical components of their strategies,” said Doug Mack, vice president and general manager of Digital Imaging and Rich Media Solutions for Adobe. “This latest update to the Adobe Scene7 platform helps users stay connected to desktop tools and extends the data-driven template approach to provide high-performing, easy-to-use services for delivering personalized and targeted dynamic content.”

The update also includes a new AIR desktop application that mirrors the Web-based publishing platform to further streamline asset management with easy drag-and-drop upload of files and folders from the desktop and connected network resources. The enhanced Scene7 platform also has support for Adobe XMP metadata standards, which allows users to efficiently administer, browse, filter and search for assets. In addition, new rules-based batch automation of multimedia sets eliminates the need for custom scripts or technical support for non-technical users.

The new template upgrades allow users to dynamically compile templated video clips, enabling cost-effective personalized promotional videos, targeted video ads, and standardized corporate videos. The improved platform also supports the design, delivery and Web preview of print templates that dynamically flow text within and across pages including inline variables. This template enhancement enables a broader range of multi-page, text-intensive, personalized publications.

“These automation enhancements will enable us to further streamline our back-office workflows, which gives our team more time to focus on other strategic initiatives,” said Brian McManus, director of technical infrastructure for Under Armour, which uses the Scene7 platform to publish all dynamic media to its e-commerce Web site.

'Net Features : Adobe Scene7

M-commerce Set for Lift-off

Adobe Revs Up Scene7 Cross-media Platform