Tuesday, December 19, 2006

NearbyNow Offers Location Based Text Message Search

A great idea. A mall or shopping center has it's own short code and retailers buy keywords for location based search ideas. One specific shortcode provides the proximity function.

NearbyNow, Inc. today announced the availability of its new mobile search service that allows consumers to find any product, brand or sale in a shopping mall simply by sending a text message.

By typing their request into their mobile phone, consumers can easily find the nearest store that sells “skinny jeans” or “men’s shoes on sale”.

How does it work? Shoppers find out about the service via instructions posted on the mall directory and throughout the mall.

For example, at the Westfield Valley Fair mall, signs say “text ‘VF’ to the short code ‘NEARBY’ (632729) to search this mall for any product, brand, or sale.” Next, consumers can:

• Type in any brand or product to see which stories carry it. For example, “men’s shoes,” “Nike Air Jordans,” or “baby clothes on sale.”
• Get a reply with (1) how many stores carry the item, and (2) the 3-4 most popular matches.
• If a coupon is available, the shopper can get additional information about the coupon (and have the mall concierge print a copy).
• Included with shoppers’ search results are sponsored messages such as sale notifications and “blue light specials”.

This new mobile service extends NearbyNow’s existing "proximity search" capabilities, which make geographic areas – such as shopping malls – 100% searchable down to every product, brand, and service

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is another company in this space - conspicuously ignored - called Slifter. Unlike availability in a few malls out West, you can use SMS or app to check nationwide.