Shopping at brick and mortar locations may undergo a revolutionary change.
Swirl has now launched a new form of mobile commerce platform that brings the technologies of smartphones, social, and web together in order to improve the shopping experience offline.
Offline purchasing still makes up over 90 percent of retail sales.
By combining in-store shopping with the mobile commerce experience, it enhances one with the other for an improved overall engagement for a greater likelihood of shopping, and of larger overall purchases.
According to Hilmi Ozguc, the CEO and founder of Swirl, “In the past 15 years, e-commerce and mobile commerce have dramatically advanced, yet they account for less than 10 percent of all retail sales.” Ozguc went on to say that “Our goal is to reinvent the consumer shopping experience where the vast majority of transactions still take place – in the physical retail store.”
The Swirl mobile commerce platform is off to a roaring start with info on over 100,000 fashion items.
It also provides information about brand promotions from among more than 200 leading retailers, as well as 30,000 stores across the United States. The feel of Swirl is quite similar to that of a fashion magazine, except that it offers many additional features, such as connection to a social network, as well as a personal assistant-style organizational capability. It also allows the user to benefit from an offer and news feed that is fully customizable. All of this is designed into a format that is completely location based.
The main target market of this mobile commerce platform is the Millennials generation that is both fashion savvy and that enjoys shopping, but that are becoming immune to the many emails with various promotions and the barrage of online offers that they see every day that requires them to purchase a product without actually seeing it in person or trying it on.
Swirl hopes that the mobile commerce feature will appeal to working women and moms who have very little free time and who would like to find a certain style of clothing and buy it right away without having to wait for the shipping.
