Mobile Phone Based Coupons On The Way
By Anna Johnson on June 11th, 2009In a recent Kikabink News article Supermarkets Use Mobile Coupons I lamented the need for so many rewards cards and gift cards, and discussed the potential for retailers to do away with these in favor of using some kind of mobile technology.
Sure enough, at least one company has developed technology that lets mobile phones and check-out scanners communicate with each other.
Mobile marketing company, Samplesaint Inc. has developed technology that lets supermarket scanners pick up the image of a coupon barcode directly from a mobile phone screen.
Samplesaint’s system allows for coupons to be sent directly to shoppers’ mobile phones by text message. Once the coupon is scanned and redeemed at the check-out, Samplesaint erases it from the mobile phone, thereby eliminating the possibility of someone forwarding the same coupon to someone else.
This month, Samplesaint will be trialling the system with consumer products company, Unilever, at a ShopRite supermarket in Hillsborough, New Jersey. If you live in the area and want to participate, you can register for a coupon by visiting Samplesaint.com from your PC or m.samplesaint.com from your mobile phone web browser.
Source: Anne Eisenberg, “The Bar Code Is Taking a Leap Forward,” The New York Times, June 6, 2009
