

Some of the SXSWi companies are addressing small business solutions such as mobile payments and location-based services, bringing these businesses increase in sales only on a very short term, as clients are interested in grabbing a bargain, while increasing the chances of building customer loyalty. It’s the latest marketing craze, and when it comes to location-based anything, you can expect to see something go down at SXSW.
The event has become a hotbed for discussing current events, which have heightened awareness around mobile payments with Google’s latest attempt to test NFC payments. While startups are starting to also take advantage of new methods in this area, cornerstones like PayPal will have to figure their best point of integration with new mobile options. “The problem with NFC payments is that they don’t do anything to help generate new leads,” says Laura Chambers, Senior Director of Paypal Mobile. “They also don’t do much to encourage repeat business,” she says.
It could be said that some of the most interesting solutions offered within the SXSW event are from Scvngr, which came up with sophisticated game mechanisms, namely LevelUp. The app offers users better rewards and discounts for returning to a business or brand more than once, much the way accruing status in a video game can increase a player’s powers. Yes, another angle at gamification, but this has become an undeniable aspect of location-based marketing, especially as an incentive tactic small businesses can easily put into play.
EBay takes a retrospective look and brings forth the famous QR codes, which have yet to find their full potential in location-based marketing, and may never. After having analyzed the results of the recent partnership between RedLaser and Atlantic Records that aimed at driving pre-order sales by encouraging fans to scan a QR code, the answer became simple. Engagement materializes into QR codes is still a good solution in mobile commerce, as it’s able to generate leads and track a bit more consumer activity, versus NFC swipes and payments.
EBay plans to change all that by taking a loose approach to geo-targeted discounts. Instead of requiring people to physically show up and “check in” to get deals, as on Foursquare, Veres says merchants can instead stick QR coupons in advertisements around town. Once captured by a user, that QR code can instruct the user’s phone to show information about the shop or product, search for price comparisons or ratings, or even initiate a purchase over the phone’s data connection. The loyalty program would rely on a user’s eBay account to track which QR codes a customer clicks, and his or her PayPal account would be able to use past purchase history to target incentives, rewards, or loyalty coupons.
Yet QR codes play a major role in location-based advertising, which is under scrutiny for privacy purposes. But QR codes again have the right answer. A university student in collaboration with Intel created a sensor tricorder, a device delivering a fresh QR code that will relay information about hidden tracking monitors, adding a byte of digital “physical” security to a business tool that’s yet to prove itself in consumer privacy standards.
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