Idea Development

So after my last post I have been thinking more and more about the mobile shopping idea. After brain storming for a while the initial ideas I came up with are:

Concept - online high street
Pulls in favourite brands
Personal shopping experience
Making online easier
Web 4.0 - data, cookies and pulling personal data for marketing purposes

I'm thinking of going along the mobile shopping app after some really inspiring and positive articles in the press.

Stylist Magazine

http://www.stylist.co.uk/stylist-network/realise-your-digital-potential-a-step-by-step-guide#image-rotator-3
(Accessed in May 2013)
Key points I took from the article were that there are more than '800,000 apps in the App Store'. This made me rearlise how widely used apps are but also show the sheer wealth of competition that is out there!

Business Of Fashion

 The Next Chapter of Content and Commerce Integration  

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2012/11/fashion-2-0-the-next-chapter-of-content-and-commerce-integration.html
(Acessed in May 2013)

 'At the top end, Clash Of Clans – one of Apple’s top-grossing apps of 2012 reportedly raked in £330,000 a day at its peak, while OpenTable announced in January it would purchase culinary social media app Foodspotting for $10m (£8.4m), two years after Alexa Andrzejewski, Soraya Darabi and Ted Grubb created it. But research by mobile analysts Adeven also revealed two thirds of iOS apps have never even been downloaded, earning them “zombie” status' 

In no way do I want my app to be of 'zombie' status, so this is something I need to be very mindful of

There was also some really interesting points in this article especially around the 'The Store Is Everywhere' section. 

Indeed, last July, The Fancy launched embeddable ‘Buy’ buttons aimed largely at fashion bloggers and their readers, working closely with the Independent Fashion Bloggers network which represents over 30,000 bloggers. “Look for us to really build this out in the coming months,” added Einhorn.He isn’t alone.Launched six months ago, a Portland, Oregon-based “in-stream transactions” start-up called Chirpify has a similarly radical vision for turning the entire the social web into a store. Already, Chirpify, which raised a seed round of $1.3 million last April, lets users purchase products directly from their Twitter and Instagram streams — simply by replying or commenting with the word ‘Buy’ — and the company has its sights set on other platforms, as well.

These two inspiring success stories show there is room and scope out there to improve online/mobile shopping experiences and that in the future the store really does need to be everywhere.

WSGN

WSGN reported in their newstream 19 April 2013 that 'Women still prefer to shop for clothes and shoes in a brick-and-mortar store, despite the fact that 53% of them have between one and five shopping apps on their smartphone, according to a new study.' I don't find this stat to disheartening as 47% do not prefer to shop.

Mintel

Mintel also had some interesting facts in their Fashion Online - UK March 2012

·     ' Mintel’s latest research reveals that three quarters (74%) of consumers buy clothes online, equivalent to approximately 38.3 million adults in the UK. This represents an impressive increase of 9 percentage points since 2011 and highlights consumers’ growing appetite for online fashion.' A growth for online shopping will support my app idea and they way that the market is moving!

I read this in Drapers on the the train home from my lecture tonight and thought it was a really interesting fact 77% of 4G users access the internet while out shopping' (Drapers May 4th 2013)

Next stop is to refine the idea 'Browse' and get my aims and objectives set! I also need to check out any possible competition to make sure I have a USP!