How to Make $11 Billion the Old-Fashioned Way

Posted By gsteen - December 7, 2011

On Black Friday this year, brick and mortar sales totaled $11.4 billion, the largest amount ever spent on the shopping holiday. Online sales the same day were $816 million, only 7% the volume of in-store sales. As often as writers, analysts and industry observers imply that brick and mortar retail is a dying model, I sure don't see much evidence of that. It's growing and still composes a large majority of total read more

Tesco’s Mobile Commerce Solution

Posted By sspearman - June 27, 2011

Global grocery chain Tesco faced a major challenge after reaching #2 in the South Korean market. How do they become #1 without increasing the number of physical stores? The chain installed out-of-home storefronts in subways with QR codes that let people shop for groceries while they waited for the train. After filling their virtual carts, Tesco employees deliver the goods directly to the home, sparing the shopper a trip to read more

Marketers: Use Your Milk Money to Buy Candy

Posted By gsteen - March 10, 2011

NTT Communications, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has created an amazing service for its Japanese customers that tracks health data for them and helps them optimize their lifestyle to meet their goals. The app will analyze what the user eats with nothing more than a photo of each meal; image analysis is used to determine the content of the meal. The app will also track daily activity through the read more

QR Code Makes TV Interactive

Posted By gsteen - March 7, 2011

AXA, a global insurance company, recently created a mobile application for the Belgian market that allows users to purchase and manage insurance from their smartphone. To promote the application, their agency created a TV spot depicting a strange scenario that would call for home insurance. The spot then invites viewers to continue the story by snapping a photo of a QR code, which loads a video on the phone. Implications: A read more

David and Goliath to Battle Over Image Recognition

Posted By gsteen - February 17, 2011

Image recognition technology has become a frequent topic of conversation in several industries since Google launched their Goggles application in late 2009. In the meantime, Goggles has become quite good at recognizing landmarks, text, logos, and cover art. It can even solve Sudoku puzzles! Visual search, or search using image recognition instead of text or voice input, is the primary application that Google has envisioned for Goggles. For example, Goggles users read more