Lydia Dishman wrote an article for Forbes that describes the new app, which is summarized below.

In April, Walmart bought Kosmix, a social media start-up focused on e-commerce for $300 million. The new firm joined Silicon Valley-based @WalmartLabs division to work on building the retail giant’s online shopping experience.

One result of the collaboration are apps for the iPhone and iPad. They are designed to simplify weekly shopping trips for grocery staples, and should be launched by Black Friday.

The National Retail Federation estimates over 52 percent of smartphone users will use their devices for holiday shopping. There’s been significant mobile adoption among the estimated 140 million customers who walk through Walmart stores every week.

One feature of the app is smart shopping lists, which allows customers to add items either by scanning a barcode on a product they already have or by speaking or typing the name of the item. They’ll also be able to access product details, customer reviews, and local availability. A budgeting tool calculates the total price of the list as items are added and calls up manufacturer’s coupons where available.

See the original article at: http://onforb.es/ssv90Y

Tagwhat announces the launch of its publishing platform that allows anyone to create and monetize their own location-based multimedia stories. Comprised of video, audio, images, and text, Tagwhat stories can be placed anywhere in the world for mobile users to discover.

Tagwhat’s mobile application delivers location-based stories in real-life context by employing GPS and a digital compass. Stories are displayed in order of proximity to the user and are organized in Channels that are toggled on and off to quickly filter through different streams of content. Tap on a story to launch the full multimedia experience. The mobile application launched in July seeded with content created by its in-house team of journalists and filmmakers as well as select launch partners including the Associated Press (AP) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Since then, the demand for access to Tagwhat’s publishing platform has been tremendous.

“Today marks the start of a new mobile medium: Multimedia Stories at Places. We go to radio for audio, to TV for video, and now Tagwhat delivers multimedia experiences tied to places on the mobile.” said co-founder and CEO, Dave Elchoness.

How does it work? Visit publish.tagwhat.com and follow the steps. Tap on the map where the story will be found. Input text and upload the video, images, and audio that tell the story. Assign the story to one of Tagwhat’s channels: Heritage, Movies, Books, Sports, Music, Real Estate, Food, Art, or Nature. Add in actions that automatically link users to websites for additional content or commerce, and interaction through email, phone, and SMS. Tagwhat will review submissions to ensure a high quality user experience.

What kind of stories fit in Tagwhat? A restaurant could publish a video interview with its chef talking about her inspiration for the signature dishes she has created. An art gallery could offer images and video of artists creating their works to encourage passersby to learn more. Sports teams can now deliver great media experiences to fans in and around the stadium. Realtors can offer prospective buyers video walkthroughs of properties and a deeper look at the neighborhood and nearby schools.

Publishers can easily monetize their stories in Tagwhat. A band could, for example, publish video and audio from a recent show, place the story at a concert hall, and include a link to purchase tickets or souvenirs.

“Anyone with a location in mind, now has a canvas for offering a story to people at that place.” said Elchoness. “Think about all the videos, images, and other content hidden away on the internet in sites like YouTube and Flickr. Tagwhat extends these beyond the ‘web’ to real places surrounding real people for entertainment, education, information, commerce, or any purpose benefiting from place-based engagement.”

[Excerpted from Tagwhat Press Release]

The following is a mini-interview I conducted with Nanqian (Nancy) Xu, a design researcher who studied design strategy in the U.S. and now works for Samsung in China. I asked her to describe her work and interests.

PB: Please describe your current job role.

NX: My current job is the product researcher of Samsung Design China. Which my output will be linked to the design part. Mostly we do ergonomic research and sometimes quantitative and emotional research. We are trying to understand the local market and comparing with global market, to see what are the key driving factors of localized product usage.

PB: How design research similar, and how is it different, in the US and China?

NX: 1. Do be conservative. people in China are more conservative specially in less developed part or in higher income level (premium). Using camera (DSLR) is very disturbing while doing home visits. Not mentioned about the video. Best way to do it is to inform the people ahead, then use your iphone to take photos or videos. Do not point it to the user.
2. Do not bring foreigners. People in China will be more cautious, or curious about your peer than the topic.
3. Do check with the interviewee before your interview. Their availability, time length….Best is talk to them in person(phone), make them understanding you are not selling things or spam…
4. Methods? keep it simple. either direct or indirect, do not use complex tools. They will be frustrated than u do.
5. Gender? it really matters, or not. If you are going to a single lady’s home, might be good to bring only girls. (at least ask them before you go, to see if they are Ok with the group of people)

PB: What are the biggest things on the international design horizon that you’re interested in?

NX: To keep updated with the most best things, in every field of design.
We all know that youtube, facebook, flipboard or those good & fresh media are banned in China. Then I really need to know, and keep the social network and knowledge as a global level. To be localized in the research insights. but not be localized with the vision.
If you guys are having really good resource, like organizations, conferences,…etc, can be both online or in reality. Just let me know and I will try my best to make it spreading in the design field in China.

And last, dont get scared when I say do not bring foreigners. In a different type of research, like double mirrored room, market visit, focus group, you guys who are interested in China are highly welcomed. And with the help of local researcher, you can also peak into the real life of Chinese. People are open-minded in megacities.
Anytime in China, let me know. I will introduce some nice spots to enjoy the original Chinese living.

Cabela’s added several UX features in the past few months. The main enhancements we found in the “Summer 2011 Retailer UX Audit” were the addition of Facebook Like, product videos, and more product views (illustrated in the image below). The Facebook Like is a simple addition that every retailer should add to their product pages. It simply lets customers tell their Facebook friends that they like a particular product, and links back to the product page. It also establishes a link between the person who likes the product, and the retailer.

The other major features, videos and more product views, help Cabela’s customers get a better feel for the products they are interested in. The videos talk about features of the product and show them in usage situations, which anchors the attention of customers in the product more significantly, and gives them more confidence that if they purchase the product, they will not be surprised to find that it doesn’t meet their expectations.

These added UX features are a big step forward for the Cabelas.com user experience. Based on our review of 100 top retailers, some UX features that Cabela’s should consider adding in future releases are: Shopping Lists (different from wish list), Expert Advice/Chat, Product Combinations, Price Drop Alert, and Spanish Product Pages.

Chicos.com added two new UX features to its e-commerce offering: Customer Product Reviews and Ask and Answer. The new features showed up in time for Usography’s Summer 2011 UX Audit. Customer product reviews have been shown to increase conversion more than most UX Features, because they give consumers more confidence to purchase an item based on the advice of people who have already purchased it.

Ask and Answer is a feature that is being more frequently implemented on e-commerce sites. Customers ask questions about a product on that product’s detail page. Then other customers or employees of the retailer can answer the questions. This helps customers overcome questions or objections that they normally would only be able to address in a store setting.

Both of these added features are a step in the right direction for Chico’s. As a next step in user experience, Chico’s should look at adding social commerce features such as Facebook Like, and purchase aids like Purchase the Outfit for coordinated product selections.

Chico's product page, Summer 2011

Every retailer who doesn’t currently have a Facebook Like and Send button should follow the Toys R Us example (shown below). In the UX Audit that Usography conducted in Q1 of 2011, Toys R Us didn’t have Facebook Like or Send. Then in the Q2 audit, both buttons were slipped very neatly next to the product image, just below the title for high prominence.

These buttons take relatively little effort to incorporate, but add significant social commerce functionality to the catalog. Now customers can Like a toy, which will appear in their friends news feeds, and will also create a link between the company and the customer’s Facebook account. The Send button is a flexible share button, that lets the customer select which of their Facebook friends to send the product detail page link to. The screen captures below show the before (Q1) and after (Q2) images from the respective UX Audits.

Without Facebook buttons:

Toys R Us without the Facebook buttons (Q1 UX Audit)

With Facebook buttons:

Toys R Us with the Facebook buttons (Q2 UX Audit)

In the past few months, Walmart has added user experience features like: Facebook Like, Social Media Sharing, Customer Images of Products, and Order Online/Pickup in Store. (UX scores for all 100 retailers at: http://ht.ly/5Nx4i).

Not every retailer can do Order Online/Pickup in Store, because of logistics, but social sharing and Facebook Like are low hanging fruit. I’m surprised at the number of retailers we reviewed for the Summer 2011 Retailer UX Audit that didn’t have these basic, simple, social commerce features.

Facebook Like, Social Sharing, Email to Friend all added

Pickup in Store Option

Customer's Image of Product

In Usography’s Q2 UX Audit of 100 top retailers, we’re finding that the tools companies offer on product pages have evolved since last quarter. I’m going to write more about this, but I just wanted to show PCMall’s nice orderly product page tool bar.

All the non-purchase actions you might want to take in one easy-to-find area, rather than scattered helter-skelter about the page. I also like the fact that they offer expert chat, for customers who need just a little more info to push them over the edge. But I don’t like the way the floating chat request window covers the product image.

I’ll be publishing a lot more findings about the Summer 2011 UX Audit. There are some advances in surprising corners of the digital commerce world.

Shop.org, comScore, and Social Shopping Labs have recently published their 2011 Social Commerce Study: Consumer Shopping via Social Media. The top line summary is reproduced below. Clearly, social shopping has not yet hit its stride, although the adoption curve is trending in that direction. The report recommends actions retailers can take to bring their social strategy in line with consumer expectations. In Usography’s field studies, we have observed and can confirm comScore’s assertion that mobile is a multiplier of social, not a separate channel.

1) The U.S. online shopper has gone social. Our study focused on the adult online population of the U.S. The study identified that 77% of the online adult population has adopted social platforms. Clearly the critical U.S. consumer for ecommerce is already social.

2) Consumers are ready and willing to shop “socially”. 42% of consumers have “followed” a

retailer proactively. This means that they have sought out the Facebook, Twitter or retailer blog

for a given retailer and opted-in to be contacted by that retailer via social channels. While the

overarching purpose of social media will remain to connect with friends, this shows that

consumers are also actively welcoming brands that they know and trust into a new level of

contact and dialog.

3) Consumers are following multiple retailers but this behavior is still in early stages. The

average consumer that has “followed a retailer” now follows an average of 6.3 retailers.

Consumers are liking and following retailers with – for now – low opt-out rates. The opportunity

for retailers is to build their fan base now and focus on genuine connection and interaction to

maintain that relationship long term.

4) Consumers want product discounts and deals but are also interested in product information. Retailers should consider a “VIP” execution whereby the proven tools of promotion and product information are given a unique and valuable spin for the retailer’s social fans.

5) Over half of consumers who follow a retailer say they have clicked through from a social platform to a retailer’s website, browsed products or commented. Retailers should take this established interaction as a strong indicator of intent.

6) Retailers must project their product stories on Facebook and Twitter without delay. Nearly one third of consumers who follow a retailer also indicate that they have made a purchase through a link they saw on a social platform. Also, when asked about their future intent, over one third of all consumers on a social platform said they would shop directly through Facebook if they were provided the capability.

7) Mobile is both an accelerator and a transformer of social commerce behavior. Mobile is a driver of social frequency: as smartphone usage grows, consumers increase the frequency with which they use social media, including shopping tools such as customer reviews. As retailers expand their mobile strategies, they must also consider how Facebook and Twitter interaction can be built in.

Channels are increasingly blurred to the consumer. Almost half of all consumers report accessing customer reviews using a mobile phone while in-store, a trend that will accelerate as more consumers migrate to smartphones. As women catch up to men in adopting smartphones, this trend will accelerate even more.

9) Consumers are not engaging with retailer blogs. Only 4% of consumers surveyed stated that they followed retailer blogs. With the exception of larger brands and lifestyle brands, retailer blogs have very low usage by consumers and may be better suited to goals other than community. Each brand must make its own call whether to develop a community on its site (blog, etc.) or to drive community using Facebook or other tools.

10) Consumers want access to what their friends think about products on the retailer’s site.

Retailers should consider Facebook Graph API tools as a way to bring the friends along.

More details at: http://ht.ly/5I2Yk

Most retailers are familiar with Facebook’s e-commerce offerings. But there are continually new developments, so Mashable’s primer on F-commerce is a welcome summary of the current state. They quote JWT’s statistic that 48% of millennials (aged 20-33) would like to see the places where they shop give them the ability to buy directly on Facebook, which is enough to motivate even the most conservative e-retailer to push its social commerce offering to the forefront of new initiatives. On the flip side, they quote the JWT statistic that 75% of people are worried about Facebook privacy and security.

I summarized the 4 types of F-commerce below, and there’s a link at the bottom to the original article.

1. Facebook-Facilitated On-Site Selling

Brands can bring the Facebook experience to their websites, tapping users’ connections and interests to support the purchasing process. The simplest examples involve using social plugins — short code snippets that ping Facebook’s network for information about the user visiting the brand’s site. The Like Button is the most common plugin and is usually regarded as a content sharing device, but when it is used in conjunction with a product page it can provide peer support by displaying the names and profile images of people who have Liked the product.

2. Facebook-Initiated Selling

Business accounts can set up a storefront for free on their Facebook Pages, and many thousands have already done so. The vast majority start the shopping process at Facebook.com but then jump to their own ecommerce pages at some point.

3. Complete Selling through Facebook

1-800-Flowers has pioneered a selling process that never takes the user away from Facebook.com. Shoppers can select products, options, see delivery dates and even include a personal message without interrupting their Facebook experience.

4. iFrames vs. Facebook Apps:

There are two ways of displaying F-commerce Pages on Facebook.com, each with its pluses and minuses. In February 2011, Facebook adopted iFrames as the method that businesses use to supply custom content to their Pages. In the simplest terms, iFrames allow a business to create and host its own content and to display it in the 520-pixel middle column of a Facebook Page.

See the Mashable article at: http://mashable.com/2011/07/14/facebook-commerce-guide/