Uniqlo - UT Me

Uniqlo’s New Mobile e-Commerce Business Model

"They’re creating a whole new business model by taking the mobile platform to its logical conclusion.  Their app, which does a lot more than Instagram’s simple filters, works hand-in-hand with a business model to turn a T-shirt (commodity) into your own work of art (priceless.)"

Full Article

http://www.opensourcestrategies.com/2015/02/20/uniqlo-new-mobile-e-commerce-business-model/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenSourceStrategies2+%28Open+Source+Strategies+Blog%29

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4VBfwMwxSE

This isn't quite my style and I certainly don't have the time or talent to design something that I'd consider wearing. I'd rather leave that for professionals who specialize in this sort of thing. Besides, I don't think they are targeting 30-somethings with this product. On the other hand, I can see how teenagers would like this product, and it is a great way to get them to interact with the brand on the platform they are most comfortable using, mobile. Uniqlo gets the added benefit of reducing inventory and unsold product designs further reducing costs. I have to believe other brands won't be far behind.  

Twitter Partners up with French Bank BPCE to offer users to Tweet Money Transfers

Tomorrow, officials from Group BPCE, France’s second-largest retail bank by number of branches, and its online payment unit S-money will reveal details of a new service at a press event in Paris.  In a statement last month, BPCE said that Twitter users will be able to “send money to other users easily, rapidly, securely and free of charge with a simple tweet”.  Details have not been released yet on the technicalities of the service, but the service requires users in France to hold a Twitter account and a bank account in order to transfer money via tweets.

Twitter is racing against other tech giants like Apple, Facebook, and eBay to gain a foothold in new payment services for mobile phones or apps.  Recently, Apple announced a new mobile-wallet feature on the iPhone to allow in-store payments from a touch screen.  Google already has a similar service with Google Wallet. EBay recently spun off PayPal to become more competitive in the rising use of consumer mobile commerce to pay for goods and services.

BPCE will offer peer-to-peer money transfers via Twitter to French consumers, regardless of what bank they use, and without requiring the sender to know the recipient’s banking details. BPCE, based in Paris, operates 8,000 branches and serves more than 36 million clients.  Twitter’s partnership with BPCE will soon reveal the success or failure of this new mobile payment platform service.

Source: http://adage.com/article/digital/french-bank-users-tweet-money-transfers/295393/
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/13/twitter-bpce-payment-tweet-french 

The power of mobile to reach the bottom of the pyramid

Mobile phone penetration in the developing world is surprisingly high compared to the adoption of any other technology or even basic public services, particularly in rural areas. High penetration coupled with technologies that enable users to use their phones to deposit, withdraw, and transfer money, as well as use their phones as a payment mechanism, create a lot of opportunities for marketers to reach the bottom of the pyramid (around 2.5 billion people how live on less than $2.50 a day but who still consume)

Take for example M-Pesa. It is a money transfer service for mobile phones that has been incredibly successful in Kenya. Users can deposit and withdraw money from a network of airtime resellers and local retailers that serve as bank agents that manage the cash float.

The technology for M-Pesa was originally developed for Microfinance. The high cost of formal banks is one of the main causes for low financial inclusion in developing countries. With M-Pesa microfinance institutions could reach their clients without the need to set-up expensive branch networks. Unfortunately, microfinance institutions have not so far benefit greatly from the technology and M-Pesa remains as a money transfer system.

This is not only a good story in economic development, it also shows that mobile technologies are enabling the BoP to access consumer goods. Marketers of consumer goods can target both the immigrants living in the developing world and their families who are receiving the money back in their native country. The big food brands come to mind, they could give a promotion code to the sender in the developed country that the recipient could receive and claim in the home country. This can even be extended to a credit service where the sender can go on-line and buy products that the recipient then claims in local stores.