View full sizeIn the world of Web-friendly mobile phones, retailing regains a certain level of mystique.
It’s not enough to simply sell something, making it fast and easy to boot.
The 60 or so retailers with mobile applications, better known as “apps,” know they must deliver some fun and flash, or at least a laugh or two.
The world of mobile apps is the new frontier for retailers, much like the Web was 15 years ago. Internet Retailer said 30 companies employed apps at the start of 2009, including online-only retailers eBay and Amazon. That number doubled by the end of the year, the trade publication reported, and probably will grow by at least that much in 2010.
And local companies want to be in that mobile mix.
Columbia Sportswear and New Seasons Market have apps, while Powell’s Books and Burgerville figure they’ll trot theirs out by year’s end. Many more have reworked Web sites to better fit smaller smart phone screens, including Columbia and McMenamins, both of which rolled out mobile sites last week.
If your phone doesn’t do much more than make calls, you’re still in the majority. But experts aren’t sure for how long.
More people in the U.S. own mobile phones than have Internet access, industry experts say. Of those with phones, 30 percent use smart phones — which are more like computers, complete with operating system, Internet access and, possibly, a tiny keyboard.
Researcher Gartner reported last week that Apple’s iPhone, which offers the largest number of free and priced apps, jumped to third place in global smart phone sales, at 14 percent, behind Nokia with 47 percent and Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, at 20 percent.
Columbia jumped into the mobile market two months ago with its, “What knot to do in the greater outdoors” app, a detailed guide to 70 knots. In typical glib app fashion, the company warns, “Be careful out there, we still need you to buy our gear!”
Last week, Columbia launched a mobile Web site that allows customers to more easily research products, find stores or shop, becoming the 138th retailer in the U.S. and Canada with a “m-commerce” site.
The “m” is for mobile, yet increasingly, it can mean money, too. EBay created a buzz …
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