Once it kicks off, any company needs to be ready to issue digital coupons; people who decide to partner with mobeam, however, may have access to opted-in consumer information that tracks which couponing websites the buyer visits, the placement and time each coupon is redeemed and other items purchased using the app. Physical coupons will still be around for your time — P&G asserts that there’ll still be lots of coupon-clippers that hunt through newspaper inserts or print them out — so the old-fashioned method isn’t completely dead yet. We’d sure like to see mobile couponing grow to a degree where increasingly trees have become saved, though.
SAN FRANCISCO – December 19, 2011 – In its continuous effort to enhance life for consumers, the Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is partnering with mobeam inc. to bring the 1st-ever fully mobile couponing system to market. The innovation, created by mobeam of California, makes electronic coupons presented on a phone or other mobile device scannable, so shoppers need only their phones/handhelds, not a stack of coupons, at take a look at.
Today, couponing represents a growing $3.7 billion segment of the buyer packaged goods (CPG) market in North America, with greater than 300 billion coupons distributed yearly and redemption at the increase as consumers strive for greater value and savings. And while smartphones are supporting users and simplifying life in a number of recent ways, formerly, phone couponing has not been an option because barcodes displayed on cell phone screens are invisible to familiar in-store laser scanners.
Smartphones support users and simplify life in a bunch of recent ways, but phone couponing has not been an option before because barcodes displayed on cellular phone screens are invisible to frequent in-store laser scanners.
Mobeam technology converts – or mobeams – the barcode data right into a beam of sunshine that may be read by barcode scanners already found at store checkout counters. No additional point of sale (POS) equipment is required.
“As impossible because it seems, even to technologists within the mobile industry, a vividly displayed barcode can not be read by the average barcode scanner,” said Nick Holland, senior analyst with Yankee Group. “The lack for a red laser scanner to read information displayed on a smartphone seriously is not a small problem. This limiting factor is stalling important innovation because the retail industry is stuck awaiting next generation mobile technology to move mainstream. The mobeam beaming solution eloquently fixes this problem, enabling current generation mobile devices to interface with legacy red laser barcode scanners.”
P&G, one of the crucial world’s leading coupon distributors, developed a partnership with mobeam through P&G’s open innovation Connect+Develop program, designed to bring leading innovation into P&G and share P&G innovation with others.
The P&G and mobeam partnership is geared toward exploring and testing a brand new, highly efficient method for consumers to redeem – and retailers to simply accept – coupons on the point of sale.
“Our vision with P&G is for the mobeam technology for use and leveraged broadly by many leading CPG companies, with P&G and other key consumer goods partners as first adopters,” said mobeam CEO Christopher Sellers.
The next move within the partnership is to work with the mobile communications industry so as to add the mobeam application into handheld phones after which to check the applying and process with shoppers and selected retailers.
“We’re fascinated by the opportunity of this new technology and our partnership with mobeam to make shopping simpler and faster for consumers. Couponing is a brilliant way for shoppers to check out new products or save at the trusted brands their families have come to like. If which might be easier, faster and not more costly for shoppers and retailers, we wish to help bring it to life,” said Jeff Weedman, vp of P&G Global Business Development.
Mobeam is operating with handset manufacturers to engineer its light-based communications technology into new lines of handsets. P&G, mobeam and other partners expect to check the technology in market in 2012.
A mobeam-enabled couponing service would offer significant benefit to key stakeholders:
CONSUMERS:
Consumers will be ready to collect and manage coupons received electronically and redeem them from their phones on the point of sale. During the past , coupons received electronically either needed to be printed to be redeemed, downloaded to a loyalty card or a checkout clerk would need to manually key in a chit code. Not just will a consumer using the mobeam technology benefit, so will the entire shoppers standing behind her in line.
RETAILERS:
The service aims to enable North American retailers to accelerate adoption of mobile coupons without hardware changes at POS. Because coupons shall be submitted digitally, mobile coupons would increase efficiency and decrease costs.
CPG COMPANIES:
Digital coupons provide substantially deeper analytic capabilities, allowing better measurement of campaign effectiveness, in addition to efficiencies in distribution, purchase validation and processing.
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