Shopenomics (changed)

There is a new web start-up called Swipely where a consumer can track her “path of consumption” throughout the day. According to The Economist “those who cherish privacy will recoil in horror, but for digital exhibitionists [Swipely] is a dream.” It appears to be the child of online banking and Facebook, only it is not connected to either; sadly, Swipely is a completely independent social network site. This is where the firm may have gone wrong and my suggestions are: Find some way to be integrated into Facebook and offer more coupons and deals to “swipers.”

Everybody and their mom have Facebook, literally. One reason Facebook is so popular is because it does so much for the user on one site and does not make online group activities difficult or confusing. Question: Why do I want to have a Facebook and a Swipely account since they both act in the same fashion? The idea behind Swipely is it “makes it easy for customers to tell their friends how they are spending their money in the real world, something they probably would not do if they had to type all the data in. (The Economist Sep. 11 2010, 76)” It is a similar idea to location-based social networking that lets people know where you are and allow businesses to send restaurant deals and travel tips. The technology Swipely uses allows for a secure, read-only connection to the bank of a user to download transaction history. Going back to my question, even if I did find the marginal benefit of Swipely to be greater than zero, why will my Facebook friends want to add another site when they have happy feet at Facebook?

The next deal is deals. If businesses are going to get me to advertise their product every time I use plastic to make a purchase, there should certainly be a rewards program involved. For places such as Starbucks and Dominoes, the consumer should be rewarded with a free latte or a free pizza after so many visits. Other stores that sell clothing and shoes might offer discounts on select items if a person “checks-in” to Facebook to tell all of her friends she is at H&M or J.C. Penny’s shopping. The Swipely sales team should go out there and get as many stores as humanly possible to get on board with the discounts and sales promotion so that each time a shopper “checks-in” or makes a purchase, the whole freaking world will know about it. The concept that Foursquare members can get discounts and perks from businesses by becoming “mayor” or frequenting a place often is genius and truly should be more accepted by the millions of people who update everything all day long.

I had to sign up with Swipely to get the down-low, however, I do not intend to make use of it. Honestly, I barely go to Facebook and only recently did I feel “ready” for the experience. Shopping, in the rich-world, has become a leisure activity that is a hobby for a lot of people, discounts on the new handbag from Louis Vuitton would make sense for a shopper who updated where she was. Frequent buyer rewards is a great way to increase loyalty if the consumer is going to broadcast every purchase made with the handy-dandy plastic card. Swipely is a good idea but it will not work as an independent social network site. Hey Mark Zuckerburg: Buy out this firm and make it work on Facebook.

Update: Daring Fireball uncovered this gem that relates nicely with my article. It is a little long; I'll admit, I didn't read the whole thing.