Godiva Goes Mobile May 8, 2008 5:14 PM
, By Tim Parry
JobZone
Search and post jobs for the Multichannel Merchant. Including jobs for brand & agency marketers, e-commerce, catalog marketers, ops & fulfillment, direct marketing and more.
Godiva Chocolatier has a new flavor: Blackberry. The
multichannel food and gift merchant has added a mobile channel to enable BlackBerry
smartphone users to make purchases on the go.
Godiva Mobile, which had its soft launch April, uses a device-resident
application that includes a rotating variety of the merchant's top-selling
products, and can integrate with other BlackBerry applications, including the
address book and mapping applications. BlackBerry users can purchase Godiva
products by simply scrolling and clicking.
A user's credit card information will be stored once entered for convenience
sake, but will be encrypted to keep potential hackers from stealing the
information, says Kim Land, vice president of direct-to-consumer for Godiva.
Users can also take advantage of the BlackBerry's built-in GPS to locate the
nearest Godiva boutique if they want to make an in-store purchase. Godiva's
mobile commerce partner, Digby, developed the merchant’s mobile channel.
What’s the appeal of mobile commerce? Last-second gift purchases and
convenience buys, says Land. "Last-minute gift giving has increased, and
not just around Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, and Christmas," she notes.
"They may be leaving for a business trip, rushing between meetings, or
even picking the kids up at a soccer game when all the sudden they remember a
birthday, want to surprise someone, or thank a client, and they can do that
from their BlackBerry."
This is not Godiva's first attempt at mobile marketing. The chocolatier, which
launched its e-commerce site in 1998, and also sells through catalogs and
stores, has been a featured merchant in Digby's virtual mall for BlackBerry
users. But Godiva wanted to create its own mobile environment so it wouldn't compete
in the same store as merchants like Wine.com and FTD.com, Land says.
"I thought it was great, as a user, to be able to conveniently shop on my
BlackBerry," Land explains. "It was a great first step for us, but
inherently we did not want to continue spending marketing dollars on something
with competitive products. It's really about driving people to our store
instead of being a part of someone else's multichannel environment."
