The annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held in Las Vegas and offered a great deal of insight about what has been learned and what is to come in the industry, including an announcement about a partnership between Alcatel-Lucent and Verizon Wireless, which will bring about a new form of m-commerce app that is designed to help consumers to save money while also assisting retailers.
At the show, the companies showed a number of demos that were interconnected in order to show the impact of video conferencing, 3D telepresence, ultra-high bandwidth connectivity, and cloud computing through 4G LTE for the retail shopping experience.
This technology may help m-commerce to provide customers and retailers a revolutionary new way of interacting, especially in terms of using money saving offers such as discount coupons. This technology is based on near field communication (NFC) and intelligent devices so that retailers can use a network to send coupons directly to consumers.
Furthermore, the service is personal and customizable, so that the shopper receives only the offers that are applicable to him or her based on previous shopping behaviors. The technology also supports the use of loyalty programs and offers improved inventory management, which are also helpful to both the buyer and the seller.
The demonstration presented by Alcatel-Lucent and Verizon Wireless at the CES showed how mobile commerce can be used in combination with other applications in order to form new business models for retail, both at home and in-store. An element of the demo illustrated precisely how NFC is used to provide a consumer with a coupon with his or her mobile device, which can then be redeemed with the retailer through a Virtual Personal Stylist (VPS) kiosk.
