Mobile Commerce Daily briefs – Big in Japan acquires Snappr to expand ShopSavvy’s bar code scanning; and Aberdeen Group releases a guide for food retail technology.

Big in Japan acquires Snappr to expand ShopSavvy’s bar code scanning
Big in Japan has acquired Snappr, a pioneer in mobile bar code scanning.

The company will incorporate Snappr’s technology into ShopSavvy, the leading comparison shopping app for Android and iPhone users.

Snappr introduced a platform to easily create, manage and access mobile content — and then to promote this content in new ways. 

Users of Snappr could create mobile content with a couple of clicks and promote it via QR Codes through printouts, t-shirts and other apparel and on social networks like Facebook.

QR codes, a Japanese technology, can store far more information than standard 1D bar codes, which make them ideal for marketing and advertising use. 

Through Google’s Favorite Places program as well as Big in Japan’s Scan with ShopSavvy program and other initiatives, awareness and use of QR codes by marketers and consumers is on the rise.

Aberdeen Group releases a guide for food retail technology
Aberdeen Group recently released a technology guide for retail industry’s rapidly changing future.

The study, titled “The Food Retail Technology Guide,” provides an assessment of the current upheaval and planned areas for reviving food retailing in 2010 through a combination of business and technology strategic drivers.

The Aberdeen Group’s analysis highlights the state of the customer, business, and systems in this vital segment of retail, with a primary focus on two key factors: mobile couponing and Web couponing.

According to the report, 2010 will be a crucial year for food retail revival.

The aggregated view of results from Aberdeen Group’s 2009 retail surveys indicate that even though food retailers are at the forefront of bearing the brunt of harsh economic realities, increased competition for consumer wallet share, and dynamic shelf-level customer preferences, the focus on both traditional and non-traditional business process and technology improvements continues unabated.

Business sustenance and growth, within grocery, c-store, supermarket and general merchandise food retail is not possible with traditional business processes and technologies alone.

For appealing to the buying senses of consumers, food retailers need to expand customer-centric improvements, supply chain, and replenishment programs more rapidly in hopes of re-engaging and re-activating the less loyal customers and keeping existing customers extremely satisfied.

These are the imperatives for creating a customer-ready retail environment.

The need of the hour is to elevate business process, technology infrastructure and technology applications layers.