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Multi-channel marketing adds another channel: mCommerce, which is shopping on mobile phones. While wildly popular overseas, mCommerce is only now beginning to pop up in the U.S.

The use of mobile phones equipped with mobile web browsers to access mobile versions of eCommerce sites represents only a fraction of the Internet today. But many industry observers say it won't be long until mCommerce becomes a sales channel to be reckoned with.

Heeding the mCommerce call, Global Security Systems has opened up its GSSNet FM based geotargeting system to online marketers wishing to place ads in the palms of the hands of shoppers, who can shop anytime and anywhere via mobile technology. The GSSNet system uses wireless geotargeting technology and the far reaching FM signal. Advertisers can deliver targeted advertising based on the location of a consumer's mobile device, the company explains.

By offering advertisers a way to reach potential customers via radio's FM infrastructure, local broadcasters across the country, for example, can offer a targeted marketing channel for an advertiser. In today's increasingly mobile society, consumer brands are interested in using mobile phones and other mobile hardware as an advertising channel, says Robert L. Adams, president of Global Security Systems.

"For advertisers, it's all about getting the right message to the right people, at the right time. Mobile devices, especially cell phones, are the right platform to make it happen," he contends. "This ability to deliver targeted ads to a mobile device will make for a positive consumer experience, which translates into brand loyalty."

Mobile phone text messaging solutions can provide the basis for a higher level of protection from online fraud and a second authentication channel for secure financial transactions. Consumer comfort with text messaging now has moved past the early adopter phase with more than 80 percent of consumers having sent or received text messages, concludes the Online Shopper Mobile Phone Study.

The study is based on a survey conducted by market research firm the Vantedge Group. It includes responses from 100 online shoppers between ages 18 and 65.

Purchase protection and security continue to be leading issues for consumers when shopping online, the study says. It finds that among online shoppers:

1. 94 percent are concerned about protecting personal information when shopping online.
2. 91 percent indicate value in being informed when credit cards are used online.
3. 67 percent would value receiving text message alerts as an additional layer of online protection.
4. 45 percent say their decision to buy would be positively affected by eCommerce sites that use a text message alerting service.
5. 50 percent would pay a monthly fee to receive text message alerts, while an equal percentage expect such a service to be provided for free.

"Couple the high level of text messaging familiarity and use with the fact that 86 percent of these consumers say they always have their mobile phones with them, and you have the makings for a powerful new set of protection services for online merchants and their consumers," contends Greg Rable, chief executive officer of FactorTrust, an internet and mobile phone security technology vendor that sponsored the study. "These numbers show the confidence online consumers and merchants have been searching for in order to move forward with implementing safer ways to shop online."

Article ID: 46