MobileCom

More than 4 billion people – over half the planet –are equipped with mobile phones. Mobile devices have turned out to be the largest business ‘impacter’ since the ‘world wide web’ took the world by storm. Mobile phones have already changed the way we live, work and communicate. Now, they are also poised to change the way we shop. This has lead to the convergence of retail operations with mobile communication.

Currently the mobile ecosystem is not fully interoperable that is services are not compatible across all mobile devices and operators. This makes it prohibitively costly and complex to launch scalable global services. As use of mobile services in business continues to grow, the need of global standards and open and neutral infrastructure trusted by both businesses as well as consumers becomes acute. Without a neutral, not-for-profit and global organisation it would be difficult to make such diverse companies and organisations to agree on a common universal standard.

The GS1 MobileCom group is a collaborative, neutral, global forum for all stakeholders interested in mobile commerce and mobile communications: brand owners, retailers, mobile operators, mobile phone manufacturers, service providers, government organisations and regulatory bodies and a variety of industry associations.

The goal of the GS1 MobileCom initiative is to provide consumers access to trusted product information and related services through their mobile phones.

One of the key applications for standards-based mobile commerce is ‘extended packaging’. It enables consumers to scan product information from the product barcode straight on their mobile phones by using their mobile camera.

GS1 has also published a whitepaper titled “Mobile in Retail: getting your in-store environment ready for mobile” which explores opportunities for consumer product manufacturers and retailers as consumers begin to use their mobile phones more often to plan their shopping and also during visits to stores.

Benefits of GS1 MobileCom

• providing store location details
• making promotional offers to shoppers on the go
• offering specially designed mobile-shopping websites
• enabling loyalty programs
• displaying discount coupons
• making payments for show tickets, parking or transportation

Find more about GS1 MobileCom