Page 10 - AeM_May_2014

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

SoLoMo

is shaking-up

the economy

According to industry analysts, there will be 7.4 billion stores seems to have significant growth potential. The
wireless devices worldwide by 2015, with more than a mobile price comparison in real time illustrates how
billion smartphones entering the global market over the with SoLoMo the offline shopping behavior can be influ-
next half decade. Bright prospects for SoLoMo, I be- enced by online resources. Although offline merchants
lieve, that will bring new momentum to the online as well always had to compete with their online rivals, SoLoMo
as offline markets by opening up entire new business is now opening the offline and online trading platforms
models. the chance to make the competition transparent.

The mobile Internet makes the user more of a local con- Larger market transparency is generated by SoLoMo in
sumer and the more it spreads the more interesting it the sense that customers are now getting more oppor-
gets for the small retailers and service providers who tunities at hand to be sufficiently informed about a prod-
have been neglected it so far. It can be expected that uct. For example, ingredients, country of origin or envi-
many new players will enter the scene that are able to ronmental impact can be purchase-related information
meet the specific needs of SoLoMo users better and for the customer. Companies can and should take ad-
faster, as those around like now. Anyway, SoLoMo will vantage of this consumer interest and produce more in-
for sure trigger a boom in new online as well as offline depth information and transparency for their brand and
business models. products.

On one hand it creates space for new online services, Due to its online origin, SoLoMo isn’t a unilateral move
which make the social and physical environment more in the direction of "local", but rather allows that the local
comprehensive by using mobile devices. On the other is at the same time global. Fact is that only those will
hand, companies must verify, adjust and revise their be successful in the long term that deliver local deals
business model due to the new conditions that come but are active and competitive globally.
along with the SoLoMo spread and the shifting consum-
er behavior. Furthermore, these transformation process- The hard-core SoLoMo providers are still providing pre-
es will produce start-ups that will conquer this new busi- dominantly platforms that serve localization or social
ness field or establish themselves in those niches, media services or a mixture of both. But in the long
which are currently dominated by the sedate large cor- term, the Social-Local-Mobile movement will have no
porations that are often too slow to react. limits. In the 1980s, the proliferation of personal com-
puters has been able to create new major corporations
Since SoLoM is an Internet-based movement, despite such as Microsoft, Intel and Apple. In the 1990s, the
all merging with the offline world, factors such as free- massive expansion of Internet use created new winners
dom and transparency will be important arguments for such as Google, eBay and Amazon. And with the up-
users to decide for or against a company’s’ offerings. coming burst of growth s in the SoLoMo movement,
The integration of customer feedback, the interaction again new players will probably establish themselves in
between companies and consumers, comes here into the market. The suspense continues and therefore Me-
place as well, as already seen in social media, but SoL- diaBUZZ has made SoLoMo one of the topics to dis-
oMo will reinforce this trend further. cuss next month at its exclusive 8byEight event. ◊

In particular, the possibility to be able to compare with By Daniela La Marca
mobile devices the internet prices while in the local

10 Asian eMarketing May 2014 - Multichannel Marketing— SoLoMo