Interesting things we’ve seen around the web this week:
At Tesco at the moment you can pre-order a Nintendo 3DS using your mobile phone, by scanning a barcode on the promotional poster. Tesco’s Nick Lansley explains how it works.
TelecomTV.com have an interesting video on yReceipts, a technology company which can send receipts as emails to consumers. The Apple store offers this service to customers already, and this company opens up the possibility to other retailers.
Facebook is moving further into the social commerce arena. It’s testing a group shopping tool, which allows consumers to buy what their friends have bought, by clicking on the icon that appears in their timeline when their friend buys it. It’s only being used for virtual goods at the moment, but the potential for physical goods is obvious.
Our own story outlines the announcement from Everything Everywhere (formerly T mobile and Orange) and their launch of a smartphone this summer with embedded contactless payment technology. The announcement came after the first of (no doubt) many stories speculating on what the iPhone 5 will be able to do. The Financial Times published a story saying the device is likely to have Near-Field Communication (NFC), which is the technology that allows contactless payment to happen. With mobile operators lining up to release NFC handsets, it remains to be seen when large retailers will take the plunge and start investing in the costly contactless scanners.
Facebook’s not the only one muscling in on social commerce. Google is reportedly preparing to launch Google Offers as a competitor to Groupon. It will operate in a similar way, with an email going out to participants containing an offer of the day. The deal won’t be triggered unless enough people buy it.
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