Say cheese! Or apparel, housewares—whatever a camera phone can shoot

Searching for products and discovering new ones using cameras on web-enabled mobile phones is new to e-retailing. Earlier this year, Microsoft Corp. introduced Microsoft Tag, a color-coded product identification tag. When a shopper submits to a participating retailer a picture of the tag using a web-enabled camera phone, the system can call up a retailer’s web page of product details and a Buy button.

Today, ticket, label and 2-D bar code manufacturer Avery Dennison Corp. and 2-D bar code and mobile technology vendor Scanbuy Inc. have announced their own camera phone e-retailing system. They soon will launch the new offering that uses camera phone technology to enhance consumers’ in-store shopping experience and boost retailers’ sales, online or in-store, the companies say.

Scanbuy’s ScanLife mobile application will facilitate the mobile shopping experience. Shoppers will be able to use their camera phone through the ScanLife app to take a picture of a 2-D barcode. The picture will be relayed to Avery servers, which return mobile web landing pages designed by Avery and a retailer using the system and its 2-D bar codes. The landing page can feature product information, cross-sells, or other content with text or images.

“Our new mobile merchandising solution will deliver purchasing suggestions, images, special offers and virtually any type of promotional messaging to shoppers as they are in the process of making buying decisions in the store,” explains Avery Dennison’s Terry Hemmelgarn, group vice president of retail information services. “The information appears on the screen of a consumer’s camera phone, turning the device into a kind of personal sales assistant that provides bottom line benefits to retailers of any size.”

Hemmelgarn says the program will also allow consumers to communicate product options and gift ideas to friends and family while they shop. “Shoppers can forward the images they capture to obtain a purchase opinion,” he adds. “Ultimately, our solution taps into the expanding needs of consumers for personalized attention and retailers’ needs to provide on-the-spot sales messaging."

Some wireless carriers have begun pre-loading the application on phones they market, Scanbuy reports. Consumers using mobile phones without the application pre-loaded will be able to download it via ScanLife.com, texting SCAN to the shortcode 43588, or via the Apple App Store or BlackBerry App World.

“By combining technologies, Avery Dennison and Scanbuy will provide consumers with a completely interactive shopping experience that links millions of ticketed items directly to mobile information,” says Johnathan Bulkeley, chief executive officer of Scanbuy. “This new solution will enable brand owners and retailers to stand apart in an increasingly competitive environment and more effectively cross-sell complementary products and services.”

2-D bar codes were created by the Japanese telecommunications giant Docomo, which has disseminated 2-D bar code reading applications on mobile phones it markets. Because of the vast reach of Docomo, 2-D bar codes have become common in Japan. They are not yet widely used in the United States.

Cameras can read 2-D bar code information because 2-D bar code systems only require image recognition, not a laser scanner like standard bar codes in the U.S. today.