GPS Shopping: Seek and Ye Shall Find

Luke Chapter 11: Verse 9 - And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

If Mammon represents a significant deified aspect of the internet, then Nearby Now and GPShopper have the tools for you. These companies are developing mobile Internet applications that allow shoppers to use their cellphones or PDAs to search the inventory and prices at local malls, reducing the expeditions to Sawgrass and Palisades to focused forays.

Just think no more Lewis & Clark treks through the Mall of America, using strollers for portage and swatting at the gnats of hawkers who hold empty promises of bargains.

Now, after you've seen it online or heard about it from that neighbor, you can journey to the cathedrals of commerce and know that your effort will not be wasted, your shoe leather shall not be worn and neither shall you want anymore.

According to the New York Times, NearbyNow tested its application at the Eastridge mall in San Jose. After shoppers signed on, they received a message listing sales in progress and asking users to type in the brand or product they were seeking. Jeans showed 90 stores. Levi 501's showed 14.

With these tools, when K-Mart wants to advertise a blue light special, you can have a thousand shoppers stampeding from all over the mall to the store.

Unfortunately, retailers do not have a good enough handle on their inventories to be always able to reflect what they have in stock. So, yes, there will be some disappointments.

But if you are looking to drive traffic, these tools can be a godsend.

In many categories, retail stores are more and more becoming showrooms. Consumers search for it online, then they go into the store to touch it and try it, and then they go home to buy it online. What a great expense those fancy retail environments are quickly becoming.

However, these technologies can revitalize stores, helping to move merchandise, motivate browsers and attract shoppers who ARE ALREADY IN THE MARKET.

You won't need truffles for these applications. What retailers do need, though, is the desire and the know-how to buy the technology coming down the pike. It is not enough to make the store fun to shop. You need to also help make people want to buy. If I were a marketer at retail chain, I would want to drag my IT person into the chair next to me and start partnering on the future of shopping. That's a faith they both need to believe in.