“Have you ever wondered standing in an electronics store whether that flat-screen TV might be cheaper someplace else? Customers can compare products and buy on the spot…”
New York — Sprint Nextel Corp. customers can now use mobile phones to compare a price and shop for everything from shoes to televisions at a few dozen retail stores with a new service the No. 3 U.S. wireless company has launched to boost revenue.
“The company said on Thursday it is providing a mobile Web portal for shoppers to compare prices or buy about 7 million products from 30 online retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., bluefly.com and shoes.com.”
Called Mobile Shopper, the free service essentially replicates the experience of shopping online but on a mobile handset. The service also allows shoppers to compare the prices they see in stores with those offered by more than 30 online partners.
“Customers who like what they see can order items on the spot with a credit card.”
“Mobile shopping on a handset, being able to do real-time price comparisons … is really the advantage that we see and something we think our users are going to get really excited about,” said Charnsin Tulyasathien, Sprint’s group manager of consumer applications and GPS solutions.
Sprint, which developed its Mobile Shopper service with privately held start-up mShopper.com, said it is the first to launch such a service in the United States. It is available on Sprint phones capable of accessing the Internet.
“Several major electronics retailers are among the stores whose prices can be compared on the Mobile Shopper service.”
It said it will not charge mobile users extra subscription fees for the service, but it will charge them for Web access.
Many wireless phone companies such as Sprint are increasingly encouraging subscribers to rely on them for more than making calls or sending text messages.
While online shopping from desktop computers has long been in the mainstream, mobile commerce has yet to take off as the adoption of Web-surfing on cell phone has been slow.
But faster wireless data speeds and better handsets could boost the mobile shopping market, said Jupiter Research analyst Alan Goode.
Sprint subscribers can open a Web browser on their phone, search for “shop” and then click on the Mobile Shopper link that appears.
Then a series of boxes allow the user to type the first letters of a product’s brand, the type of product or a specific model number and the store’s price.
The mShopper service allows consumers to buy items with their phones after setting up an account linked to a credit card either over their phones or online.
Goode forecast the North American market for mobile online shopping would increase to $505 million in 2008 and $1.9 billion in 2010 from about $40 million in 2006. This compared with a $200 million market in Europe in 2006.
Sprint executives are optimistic and expect the new comparison shopping feature to be more popular and helpful in encouraging more subscribers to use the advanced technology.
“As people become more comfortable, I would not be surprised if they started making more purchases through Mobile Shopper,” he added.
Sprint Nextel, which receives no money from purchases, views the service as another way to attract and retain its customers.