Wine shoppers may clog store aisles with m-commerce
Joining a growing number of companies embracing m-commerce as a marketing or sales tool, WineZap.com has unveiled a text message service that enables shoppers to access wine prices, availability and other information via their mobile phones.
To use the niche search engine’s WineZap Mobile service, shoppers send a text message containing the vintage and name of a wine and their ZIP code to mobile@winezap.com. Shortly after, shoppers receive a reply text message with a listing of the current high, low and average price for that wine along with the name, phone and pricing of nearby wine retailers offering that wine. In addition to using text messages, also known as SMS (short message service), shoppers can access the same information via e-mail or MMS (multimedia message service).
For example, a shopper who sends a text message indicating “2004 Caymus Cabernet 94621” will receive a reply text message indicating: “Caymus-Cabernet Sauvignon/$63.97/$95.00/$68.29; Wine Miles (Benicia)/$64.89/707-751-0551, Calwine.com (Napa)/$64.95/888-225-9463, and K & L Wine Merchants (SF)/$64.99/800-247-5987.” The pricing and retailer information stems from the niche search engine’s database, which aggregates and stores wine pricing information from more than 700 U.S. retailers.
“Most wine buying still happens in wine shops and supermarkets. With this service, you can see a wine at a store, send a text message and find out right away if it is a good price. You can even see a list of other nearby retailers and their pricing,” says Michael Stajer, CEO of e-retailer WineCommune, parent of WineZap. “This type of service is what’s next. People want access to product information and pricing data wherever and whenever they make purchases, not just in front of their computer.”
Launched in 2004, WineZap.com enables online shoppers to search for wines by region, type, food pairing, price and rating. Today the company is working on a new m-commerce service that will enable mobile phone users to send an image of a wine label and receive a text message with in-depth product and pricing information.
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