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Shopping Search on the Internet

Search engines have revolutionized the way people look for information. A huge success in the Internet, search has made people dependent on it that people use search engines to do everything from research to shopping. Shoppers find great deals and stores just by searching for products they are interested in. However, most shoppers find it taxing and irritating to have to enter their personal information for every store they find through search where they want to buy something from.

Google's new service, Google Checkout, has made shopping more convenient. It furthers the integration between search and shopping by allowing shoppers to buy from different stores using a single Google log in. This means that shoppers do not have to enter their information multiple times just to buy several items from different stores but can opt to 'checkout' items they find through Google search. With the checkout system online shoppers will be encouraged to shop even more due to less hassle and the security that Google checkout brings.

Search in Mobile Phones

Shopping search is not only gaining in popularity in the Internet but is moving on to new media as well. In an article by Jim Hedger entitled The Changing Venues of Search - Search Going Mobile he stated that 'It is the users who dictate how technology develops' [and] choose which technologies survive and how those technologies will be used.' According to Hedger people are migrating to the use of Internet capable handheld devices like PDAs and mobile phones due to their portability. Portability is important to users, not just in terms of the devices, but portability of information as well. Because of this, search - the number one way of finding information in the web ' is finding its way to mobile phones making a vast resource of information (the World Wide Web) portable.

In a paper by Lisa Wehr on Mobile Search and its Implications for Search Engine Marketing, she said discussed how mobile search has gone a long way from the days when search consisted 'solely of SMS (Short Message Service), which provides simple information on weather, flights, stock quotes, etc. based on text message requests' to now being able to give search results from search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and others.

Marketing in Mobile Phones

Marketers, of course, saw the new opportunities that the improved search that mobile phones brought. With the improved search capability came the opportunity to promote and sell their products and services through mobile phones in ways that are more convenient and attractive to their audience. Mobile shopping, which has been around for sometime already but has been limited by the phones' technologies has become more feasible. Mobile shopping is now positioned to advance along with the advancement in mobile search and is bound to become increasingly important to shoppers in the next few years.

Making the Most Out of Mobile Shopping

Marketers, however, need to know their audience in order to make the most of the opportunity. According to Wehr marketers should provide services and products that address the basic survival needs of customers before offering products catering to their more sophisticated tastes. The basic needs are, of course, food, shelter, and security. This means that the kind of products and services that should be made available in mobile phone search are food delivery, numbers of hotels and restaurants, weather updates, and email (for personal security issues). After satisfying these needs only will costumers buy things that satisfy their belongingness and cognitive needs then their aesthetic needs. Examples of products that address belongingness needs are ringtones and wallpaper downloads that show of their personality. Cognitive needs are addressed by products like news and research. Aesthetic needs, which is the last in line, includes everything from beauty tips to cell phone casings and other luxury products.

Companies in the Forefront of Mobile Shopping

Many companies understood the customers need for mobile shopping and has been and are answering these needs. Some of these companies are:

Yahoo! ' Yahoo launched its beta version of Mobile Shopping last September 2005. Mobile Shopping is just the mobile version of their Yahoo Shopping and enables mobile users to comparison shop for free. However, they still haven't found means to let customers actually buy products from their phones. The mobile version of Yahoo Shopping only allows customers to compare product prices and access product information through their phones.

Google ' Google SMS is a service that allows user to do more than just search and shop. Mobile phone users can get phone book listings, movie showtimes, weather, facts, dictionary definitions, product prices from Froogle, and more using Google SMS. Like Mobile Shopping of Yahoo Google SMS doesn't allow purchases to be made just yet but offer comparison shopping only.

Amazon and TicTap Mobile ' A partnership between http://Amazon.com and http://TicTap.com lead to an SMS service wherein mobile users can search for http://Amazon.com products using mobile devices such as mobile phones and even PDAs. But just like Yahoo and Google customers are only able to comparison shop.

Smarter SMS ' Smarter SMS allows users to learn the lowest price of computer and/or electronic devices and parts online. The service is free and is aimed at helping customers inside retails stores figure out how much they could save by buying the equipment they see in the stores online instead of in that specific store.

Slifter - Slifter is both a web and mobile application wherein users can search for products and brands from online and retail stores. Slifter lets users search for products by either price or proximity and shows results which includes detailed descriptions and images of the product and the store(s)' location and phone number. Slifter also has promos and discounts available for different retailers. To avail of the promo mobile users need to show or type in the promotional code given by Slifter to the product retailer. However, again even Slifter is not able to let users buy directly from the mobile phone but is used for comparison shopping only.

Other companies worth checking out are ScanBuy Shopper and Neven Vision.