Why we think mobile isn’t killing traditional retailers

Rating: GoMo interviews Udozi’s Alan Gabbay

With the mobile internet rapidly displacing the fixed/static internet, it was extremely interesting to chat with some-one who is on the ‘Front Line’ of this sea-change – Alan Gabbay from Udozi. Alan’s company started out with just a traditional (HTML) web based presence but soon realised it had to embrace the mobile web. Udozi launched a beta version of its mobile app (iOS only) back in February 2012 and is still working closely with existing users on their feedback. Udozi’s business model is a classic case of a service which can enormously benefit from the mobile web’s USP – location. Udozi’s ‘stock comparison’ site enables users to search around the vicinity for the nearest stockist. Presently, the site is confined to London’s W1 (West One) shopping district but the company obviously has ambitions to expand outside this narrow base.

Currently, Udozi has signed up around 160 independent retailers who provide this web site operator with stock level information on their product offerings.

Gabbay confessed that Udozi has in effect been in stealth mode for mobile.

It has reached 160 clients virtually entirely by word of mouth and personal visits to retailers’ premises.

The objective will, of course, be to sign up the major retailing groups but at present it is sticking with the independents.

When Udozi expands beyond W1, it will probably hook up with the UK’s main major shopping centres.

Significantly, GoMobile News discovered that the original Udozi iOS beta app did indeed have a bar code reading element which would have allowed users to scan in 1D barcodes from products in stores.

So users could easily find, say, a particular music CD on the web.

However, as Gabbay explained, “We are not a price comparison site. There are already plenty of those.”

“No, instead Udozi aims to make the W1 shopping experience as pleasurable as possible.”

Instead of concentrating on pure price, Udozi users are supplied with all the information they really need to find the product they seek – such as maps, directions, telephone numbers and even contact names.

By picking W1, Udozi was able to concentrate on what are probably the UK’s leading retail precincts – on Oxford, Regent, and Bond Streets.

Here at GoMobile News we were slightly surprised by the type of products which seem to be proving most popular with Udozi users. Basically books and electronics.

This does make sense, however. If you know the book you want or the make of the iPhone case you require, knowing a retailer has the item in stock and is nearby is far more important than buying at the lowest possible price (and waiting days for it to be delivered!).

With any luck, Udozi will soon realise how restricting itself to just an iOS app with no Android beta is a bad idea.

The feature which Gabbay promises next, however, make a good deal of  sense.

An ability to create a route (from A to B) of the shortest shopping trip to encompass all of the items on a shopping list.

The fact that so many retailers are already benefiting from Udozi’s app sending customers to their stores helps prove that mobile is a useful adjunct to traditional shopping – not its death knell.