Group items tagged

Open Data Kit (ODK) is a suite of tools to help organizations collect, aggregate and visualize their data.

The magazine is launching an application that looks like a fun shopping and styling tool but is actually a savvy way to connect the magazine and its advertisers directly with readers' wallets.

The mobile phone is another emerging digital tool for the holidays and is expected to be used by nearly one in five consumers (19 percent) to assist with their holiday shopping. Those consumers plan to find store locations (55 percent), research prices (45 percent), find product information (40 percent), get discounts and coupons (32 percent) and read reviews (31 percent). One in four (25 percent) even expect to make a holiday purchase with their phone.

Reviews have become another key online source of information, with nearly four in 10 consumers (39 percent) indicating they often read consumer-generated reviews of stores or products online, and one-quarter (25 percent) saying they will likely purchase a product this holiday season based on an online recommendation. More than a third (34 percent) say that online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than advertising.

BUG gives you all the tools you need to build your dream gadget -- a collection of electronic modules you can easily snap together and program to make any device you want. Best of all, it's open source.

People have long shared product opinions with friends and family through word-of-mouth. Today, social media tools enable consumers to extend their connections and conduct commerce in powerful new ways.

Social network users are a highly coveted group of consumers. Across all age brackets, they were more likely than average to make an online purchase, according to a May 2009 survey by Anderson Analytics. What’s more, social network users are sharing recommendations with greater frequency than generally expected. A Q1 2009 Razorfish survey of social network users found that some 29% reported sharing their views online at least every few weeks, while 10% said they made such contributions at least every few days.

According to Muse, ShopSavvy currently boasts over 3 million users who are on average performing 26 product scans per month.  These are impressive statistics when you consider that the application is available for only one platform at the moment.  But another interesting statistic, especially for retailers, is that 91% of scans are performed by users who are in a store and in “buy mode”.  

The application itself is compelling enough to the current crowd of Android owners - 75% of them have installed and used ShopSavvy.

“A lot of consumers used mobile as a price-comparison shopping tool—mobile price-comparison and geolocation features show promise for retailers.”

The mobile-phone transaction increase supports the assertion that buyers shopping at brick-and-mortar stores were price-checking products with their mobile phones and then buying items wherever they were least expensive.