The “year of mobile” concept is no longer valid: now it’s a case of how mobile is becoming the de facto way to get online and the key way that people shop. Paul Skeldon examines other key trends in mobile this year.
Visual search
Most online retail is driven by search, however with many retail sectors – mostly fashion, home furnishings and the like – the need to find things based on what they look like (or more specifically trying to find something that you have seen or are looking at) is actually the key initial shopping parameter.
In 2014, technologists are realizing this and developing visual search tools. And mobile – because of its camera – is at the heart of this trend.
Read on:
Mobile trends 2014 – part I
Making a mint through mobile
Mobile optimisation for ecommerce
The idea is simple: point your phone and the trainers the guy opposite you on the bus is wearing and take a picture and use that to search. The idea has been around for a while, but has yet to be perfected, but products such as FindSimilar, created by London based Cortexica Vision Systems are set to make big strides in this field this year.
The software mimics the way the brain processes images and finds similarities. A picture of a dress, a blouse or a shirt can be analysed by the software which then delivers similar alternatives. Search results are based on a combination of pattern, style, colour and overall design.
This broadens choice and helps shoppers to find items that are more affordable or simply closer to their personal taste.
Online fashion search engine ShopStyle has integrated the software into the new version of its free app whilst ‘StyleThief’, which relies entirely on images for search, has also integrated the software. A shopper can use such apps by simply taking a picture on the camera built in to their smartphone.
A quick snap of a shop window mannequin, a magazine picture of an item of clothing, someone in the street or a catwalk model is all that is needed to look for similar items, which are then presented for potential in-app purchase.
Second screening
To date we have seen much about how more people are watching TV while using another device than ever before. This second screening phenomenon is set to grow still further in 2014 and finally come into its own.
So far, what we have largely seen is parallel screening, where a consumer is sitting in front of the telly tweeting or chatting with friends around a particularly gruesome ‘talent’ show.
But the true potential – and indeed meaning – of second screening is to turn that device into a augmentation of the TV and allow it to become a purchasing channel.
Where this really comes into its own is in turning TV shows into a platform to directly sell things they are watching or seeing on television either in adverts or product placement.
The rise of audio recognition systems such as Shazam to recognize either buried sounds inaudible to humans or to recognize dialogue will make this process more seamless, but even just encouraging people to Google while watching can be effective.
This is going to revolutionise the effectiveness of advertising and the media and is going to come into its own in 2014/
Wearables
April is rumoured to be the month when you can get your hands on a pair of Google Glasses (sorry, the official name is Google Glass, but I suspect they aren’t going to be called that for long) and so will begin a whole new chapter in mobile tech: wearable technology.
Google Glass is perhaps the most obvious of these – along with the seemingly unloved Samsung Galaxy Gear Watch and the Pebbl – which brings the joys of the web to stuff you can wear. But for me this the really just the showboating end of the market that demonstrates what can be done with this sort of tech.
In reality very few people will wear Google Glass – in fact a survey out this week by LoveMyVouchers.co.uk finds that two thirds of UK consumers would be way to embarrassed to wear Google Glass and so won’t buy them. The smart watch has also been something of a damp squib.
Really what these things do is demonstrate that wireless technology is something that doesn’t have to live in a smartphone or tablet, but is adaptable.
And I believe that latterly in 2014 we are going to start to see the introduction of things with mobile tech built in – and the internet of things will be created.
The starting point will be clothes, but it will extend to cars, bags, shoes everything until everything is smart. And this means that there is way more data to gather; way more context to utilize and, bringing us neatly back to almost where we started, will see the initiation of Mobile 4.0 – the mobile internet of everything.
For part one of this series, click on the following link: Mobile trends 2014 – part I
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