Please order when it rings
Distefora connects instant shoppers through its virtual SMS center
Distefora connects instant shoppers via its virtual SMS centerBy Carlo BernasconiM-Commerce is a reality. That's according to Michael Kägi, who is responsible for the mobile division at Distefora Holding. Shopping via cell phone is even expected to become a boom when next-generation cell phones include more and more Internet functions and data transmission becomes faster and cheaper.
By a few years from now, cell phone penetration will have increased to between 90 to nearly 100 percent of the population. With the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) system, data transmission speeds have been massively increased (Diax already has it set up). This allows growing cell phone usage for Internet services. And anyone who owns a cell phone also knows how to send an SMS (Short Message Service). More than five million such messages, limited to 160 characters, are sent every day.
Michael Kägi, founder of Minick, which he has now contributed to Distefora Holding, developed software for m-commerce systems early on. Today, he operates a virtual SMS center that acts as an interface between mobile customers and providers.
Distefora Mobile primarily offers customers who offer standardized products the electronic logistics for processing orders via SMS. The media chain Ex Libris, part of the Migros Group, has already discovered the advantages of the virtual SMS center and sold products via SMS last year. Today, a total of around 1,000 products are sold via the virtual SMS center every day, says Kägi.
Component of a successful marketing mix
Kägi still encounters skepticism when he extols the benefits of m-commerce among advertising agencies. "In many cases, I still find the same dismissive attitude as when the Internet was introduced," Kägi says.
Kägi sees the benefits of m-commerce in encouraging consumers to instant store by allowing them to use a few letters to trigger orders for products that have previously been advertised using traditional media.
For example, Ex Libris advertised the new Madonna CD with print ads and the indication that the CD could also be ordered via SMS. For Ex Libris managing director Peter Bamert, however, it is "still too early to be able to judge conclusively whether the instrument should be used constantly as a communication and sales tool or as a promotional tool," he told WerbeWoche.
This gives providers access to end-customer address databases that enable them to perform precise data mining. Will cell phone owners be allowed to receive an SMS from Ex Libris when they buy the next Madonna CD, inviting them to purchase the brand-new CD this way as well? Bamert is cautious: "The ideas are there. But we are very customer-oriented in this regard and don't want to overforce the possibilities that these addresses offer, just like those of our 120000 club members or the Cumulus addresses."
Of course, Distefora forbids its customers by contract to use the addresses for other direct marketing activities, and in Distefora's virtual SMS center these addresses are not made available to other customers either. So that it doesn't happen that an ex-Libris customer is suddenly prompted by SMS from competitor Directmedia to buy the new Madonna video.
Cumbersome voice shopping vs. fast SMS trading
For Michael Kägi, m-commerce already has a future because shopping via cell phone in the classic conversation is too cumbersome and too time-consuming. In addition, the provider has to set up an infrastructure that is much more expensive (call center) than Distefora's software solution.
That's why he considers mobile advertising and m-commerce "an ideal 1-to-1 marketing tool" because the customer's response is in real time, because a database can be built up, and because accurate statistics are available.
Thus, Ex Libris - on the day of the announcement of the code word and the SMS number via advertisements and also via an interview by Peter Bamert on Ra-.
dio 24 - thousand copies of the CD sold. But not every product is suitable for this. "The ideal products for m-commerce are roughly the same as those that have already been successful in e-commerce: CDs, DVD movies, tickets, in other words, products where you know exactly what you're buying," Kägi says. Collective orders don't work.
On the other hand, the HTL graduate engineer can well imagine a customer logging on to a tour operator's homepage, for example, and asking for a specific last-minute offer, which can then be transmitted to him by cell phone so that he can book the appropriate offer by SMS confirmation.
Still on the young
restricted offers
M-commerce is currently limited to the target group of 14- to 29-year-olds, as this group has been quickest to adopt the new means of communication SMS and is also the most adept at using it - at least that is what previous offers to shop via SMS indicate.
But Kägi can imagine SMS offering even more services. "Wireless will increasingly intervene in marketing," he is convinced. For example, Kägi can imagine Nike sponsoring a slogan when cell phone customers check the latest sports results. Tourist resorts could offer cell phone owners the latest info as soon as they get close to the resort with their phone - which already happens today when you get on the network of TIM, the Italian GSM network operator, off Como.
By a few years from now, cell phone penetration will have increased to between 90 to nearly 100 percent of the population. With the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) system, data transmission speeds have been massively increased (Diax already has it set up). This allows growing cell phone usage for Internet services. And anyone who owns a cell phone also knows how to send an SMS (Short Message Service). More than five million such messages, limited to 160 characters, are sent every day.
Michael Kägi, founder of Minick, which he has now contributed to Distefora Holding, developed software for m-commerce systems early on. Today, he operates a virtual SMS center that acts as an interface between mobile customers and providers.
Distefora Mobile primarily offers customers who offer standardized products the electronic logistics for processing orders via SMS. The media chain Ex Libris, part of the Migros Group, has already discovered the advantages of the virtual SMS center and sold products via SMS last year. Today, a total of around 1,000 products are sold via the virtual SMS center every day, says Kägi.
Component of a successful marketing mix
Kägi still encounters skepticism when he extols the benefits of m-commerce among advertising agencies. "In many cases, I still find the same dismissive attitude as when the Internet was introduced," Kägi says.
Kägi sees the benefits of m-commerce in encouraging consumers to instant store by allowing them to use a few letters to trigger orders for products that have previously been advertised using traditional media.
For example, Ex Libris advertised the new Madonna CD with print ads and the indication that the CD could also be ordered via SMS. For Ex Libris managing director Peter Bamert, however, it is "still too early to be able to judge conclusively whether the instrument should be used constantly as a communication and sales tool or as a promotional tool," he told WerbeWoche.
This gives providers access to end-customer address databases that enable them to perform precise data mining. Will cell phone owners be allowed to receive an SMS from Ex Libris when they buy the next Madonna CD, inviting them to purchase the brand-new CD this way as well? Bamert is cautious: "The ideas are there. But we are very customer-oriented in this regard and don't want to overforce the possibilities that these addresses offer, just like those of our 120000 club members or the Cumulus addresses."
Of course, Distefora forbids its customers by contract to use the addresses for other direct marketing activities, and in Distefora's virtual SMS center these addresses are not made available to other customers either. So that it doesn't happen that an ex-Libris customer is suddenly prompted by SMS from competitor Directmedia to buy the new Madonna video.
Cumbersome voice shopping vs. fast SMS trading
For Michael Kägi, m-commerce already has a future because shopping via cell phone in the classic conversation is too cumbersome and too time-consuming. In addition, the provider has to set up an infrastructure that is much more expensive (call center) than Distefora's software solution.
That's why he considers mobile advertising and m-commerce "an ideal 1-to-1 marketing tool" because the customer's response is in real time, because a database can be built up, and because accurate statistics are available.
Thus, Ex Libris - on the day of the announcement of the code word and the SMS number via advertisements and also via an interview by Peter Bamert on Ra-.
dio 24 - thousand copies of the CD sold. But not every product is suitable for this. "The ideal products for m-commerce are roughly the same as those that have already been successful in e-commerce: CDs, DVD movies, tickets, in other words, products where you know exactly what you're buying," Kägi says. Collective orders don't work.
On the other hand, the HTL graduate engineer can well imagine a customer logging on to a tour operator's homepage, for example, and asking for a specific last-minute offer, which can then be transmitted to him by cell phone so that he can book the appropriate offer by SMS confirmation.
Still on the young
restricted offers
M-commerce is currently limited to the target group of 14- to 29-year-olds, as this group has been quickest to adopt the new means of communication SMS and is also the most adept at using it - at least that is what previous offers to shop via SMS indicate.
But Kägi can imagine SMS offering even more services. "Wireless will increasingly intervene in marketing," he is convinced. For example, Kägi can imagine Nike sponsoring a slogan when cell phone customers check the latest sports results. Tourist resorts could offer cell phone owners the latest info as soon as they get close to the resort with their phone - which already happens today when you get on the network of TIM, the Italian GSM network operator, off Como.
