Mobile enables unique customer insights for location and time-specific targeting. Explore @ ibm.co/Xx0trH #ibmmobile
JiWire Mobile Audience Insights Report Q42011
Very Active - mobile shopping behavior perhaps?
‘Mobile retailing’ is changing shopping
.. diffusion of mobile retailing is moving rapidly beyond the early adopter phase. A recent study conducted by the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activities (2012) on the mobile shopping behavior of 18 to 25 year old university students found that 91 percent of respondents owned a smartphone. One-in-three said they had downloaded a shopping-specific app, and the majority of respondents said they actively searched new apps weekly
Via Elizabeth Evans, Ryerson University on Building a Smarter Planet
Infographic depicting the percentage breakdown of social networks South Africans use on their mobile phones. Data from World Wide Worx. 2012
New Livestream Broadcaster Will Let You Stream From Almost Any Camera
Livestream, the premium live video streamingservice, is announcing an interesting new product today: a $495 hardware encoder that can be connected to virtually any camera and that can stream HD video directly to the Web through a WiFi connection or most USB wireless modems. The small device is fully integrated into the new Livestream platform. The purchase price includes three months of free access to Livestream’s ad-free HD streaming service (normally $45/month). Livestream describes the device as “the industry’s first affordable unlimited ad-free HD live streaming end-to-end solution.”
The Livestream Broadcaster connects to the Internet through a 3G or 4G modem (in the U.S., Livestream recommends using a USB modem that connects to Verizon’s 4G LTE network), but producers can also opt to connect to a local WiFi or wired network.
Once it is connected to the Internet, producers can control it through a small LCD screen on the encoder or over the web. The Broadcaster supports virtually any camera that can feed it with an HDMI signal (including 1080i, 720p and 480i). The output is encoded in real-time in H.264 video and AAC audio at up to 720p and 2.3 Mbps. The device also has a 3.5mm audio input. Thanks to its tripod mount, users could even install it right on their cameras with a simple tripod to hot shoe adapter.
As the company’s CEO and co-founder Max Haot told me earlier this week, Livestream isn’t planning to become a hardware platform. While he wouldn’t tell me whether the company actually subsidizes the product to keep the price this low, he did note that this is basically a play to get more producers onto the Livestream platform. Because of this, making high margins on the device itself doesn’t really matter to the company.
Top 10 Surefire Ways to Boost Sales for Small Business in 2012[Infographic]
Via: posted at Saleschase.com on March 16, 2012
Sales are the lifeline of any business, small or big. When you increase sales, you increase cash flow. Organizations devise new strategies to increase sales. Some work and others don’t.
Today’s infographic by Truaxis discusses 10 proven ways to increase sales that you can adopt in 2012. While your business may already be using some of these tips, there may be others that you might have ignored till now. You never know what will click and what won’t unless you try.
What do you think of these tips? Have you tried any of these? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments section.
Square Lets Entrepreneurs Round Out Their Payment Options
Via: Posted by Todd Wasserman, 1/15/12 at Marshable.com
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
If you’re an entrepreneur in the retail sector, you’ve no doubt heard the following phrase that has brought many transactions to a grinding halt: “Do you take credit cards?”
If the answer is no, all the goodwill in the world won’t help you. These days, people just don’t carry that much cash around with them. That was the situation that Chip Forsythe encountered last year. Forsythe is one of the founders of Slo Down Wines, a San Francisco vintner. Forsythe started the company with two college buddies. Having no budget to speak of, he soon found the company’s primary marketing vehicle — wine shows — was quickly depleting their resources.
By Forsythe’s estimation, each show would cost around $300 or so to participate in. Then the company would distribute hundreds of dollars in wine for free. What was frustrating was that people at the shows appeared interested in buying Slo Down’s wines, but didn’t have cash. Last year, Forsythe’s younger brother told him about Square, a free device and app that let you process credit cards on your smartphone. It was a huge change.
“We went from losing money at the shows to making thousands of dollars,” he says. Fair enough, but why didn’t Forsythe just go the traditional route and get a merchant account with one of the credit card companies? “It seemed too beyond us,” he says. “We didn’t have any money.”
It’s hard to turn down free, though. Square entices vendors like Slo Down by sending its quarter-size Square reader device free. After that, the company takes a 2.75% cut of every transaction. You can also set up an account pretty quickly, says Katie Baynes, a rep for Square. “We do a credit check, but it’s not a traditional check,” she says.
Launched publicly in October 2010 by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, Square claimed its 1 millionth vendor in December. While Baynes says the company doesn’t outline which types of companies are using Square, anecdotally at least, it seems to have found a niche among formerly low-tech trades like food trucks, farmer’s markets, dog walkers and Christmas tree vendors, as well as at PTA fundraisers.
