Digby, a leading mobile commerce service provider, announced the availability of Powered by Digby, a mobile commerce software
platform that gives retailers the ability to deliver a superior mobile
shopping experience to their customers. Powered by Digby uses the same
proven infrastructure that powers the Digby Marketplace, an
award-winning consumer service that allows smartphone users to
effortlessly buy products from an array of leading merchants. Retailers
utilizing Powered by Digby will enable their customers to purchase
products anytime, anywhere, thus capturing additional sales and
increasing customer affinity.
Godiva Chocolatier and
1-800-FLOWERS.COM, INC. , recognized national brands,
have both signed contracts to launch branded mobile storefronts using
Powered by Digby. Godiva Mobile launched on April 30, 2008 and
1-800-FLOWERS.COM mobile storefront will launch later this summer.
These mobile storefronts utilize the retailer's brand identity and
deliver a streamlined shopping and checkout process to mobile users
with smartphones. Powered by Digby also provides mobile-browser access
which allows the retailer to reach any customer with access to the
mobile internet. The combination of a rich application for smartphone
users with broader access for mobile-browsers is unique to Powered by
Digby and maximizes the return on the retailer's investments by
delivering their mobile storefront to virtually all connected handheld
devices.
Pricing and Availability
Powered by Digby is available immediately for BlackBerry smartphones,
Windows Mobile smartphones and mobile-browsers. iPhone and Andriod are
expected to be available during the last half of 2008. Pricing is based
on a set-up fee and annual sales commitment and starts at $7,500.
"1-800-FLOWERS.COM has always been an innovator
in making shopping easy - whether it is online, via phone or now, on
your mobile device," said Jim McCann, CEO and founder for
1-800-FLOWERS.COM. "Our 1-800-FLOWERS.COM mobile store Powered by Digby
continues this tradition and provides our customers with new ways to
purchase. The convenience of shopping on your mobile phone will make
gift giving simple and fun."
"Powered by Digby is the
first comprehensive mobile commerce platform designed to enable a high
quality mobile experience for retailers of all sizes," said Dave
Sikora, CEO of Digby. "Mobile is emerging as a critical element of a
successful multi-channel sales strategy, and Powered by Digby allows
retailers to easily integrate mobility into their sales initiatives and
deliver a transformative user experience. Our ability to understand the
needs of retailers comes from our experience with the Digby Marketplace
and truly sets Digby apart in this rapidly emerging segment."
Retailers
using Powered by Digby gain access to mobile commerce technology and
expertise, as Digby creates, produces and manages the branded mobile
stores on-behalf of the retailer. The retailer investment is minimal
but they gain significant benefits, including:
- Incremental transaction opportunities: Customers take the store with them everywhere, enabling convenient impulse purchases anytime, anywhere.
- Widespread availability:
A rich on-device application for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone and
Android plus access for all mobile-browsers maximizes retailer reach. - Strengthened customer affinity: Offers and promotions via mobile delivery bring the retailer closer to customers and strengthen the brand.
- Channel innovation: Mobile is emerging as a legitimate fourth channel to complement physical stores, direct mail/catalog, and the web.
- Risk reduction:
The award-winning technology has been developed and proven, and Digby
handles production and operations while retailers drive mobile channel
marketing.
"At Godiva Chocolatier, we
created our private Godiva Mobile storefront using Powered by Digby to
give our customers a convenient and simple shopping experience for
ordering the perfect last minute gift of chocolates, truffles and
gift-baskets," said Kimberly Land, vice president of the
Direct-to-Consumer division of Godiva Chocolatier. "Powered by Digby
made the process of implementing Godiva Mobile virtually effortless."
About Powered by Digby
Branded mobile stores consist of a device-resident application that
includes the retailer's best selling products and can integrate with
other applications on a smartphone, including the address book and
mapping applications. The result is a transformative user experience
that allows consumers to purchase products by simply scrolling and
clicking.
The branded mobile stores include the following customer-inspired features:
- Quick access to the retailer's most popular products.
- The ability to complete a shopping transaction in less than thirty seconds from a smartphone.
Rich product descriptions and full-color images. - Address book integration, which provides the ability to input shipping information with just a few clicks.
- A
"One-Touch Store-Locator" that utilizes GPS or cell-tower location to
automatically identify stores close to the user's location. This
capability can link to both device resident mapping software as well as
store inventory systems to provide location-dependent product locators. - Secure transactions and password protected buying.
Mobile-browser
access to the catalog is also available, ensuring that any customer
with access to the mobile internet can use the mobile storefront. Both
the on-device application and the mobile-browser connect to a hosted
Mobile Commerce Platform that includes:
- A
patent pending Catalog Service that optimizes and downloads the catalog
to mobile device and provides content and price updates. - A Transaction Service that delivers the transaction to the e-commerce system.
- A
Metrics Service that provides detailed information on consumer usage
including sales statistics, abandoned shopping carts, and
click-streams. - A Merchandising Console for managing product presentations and promotions.