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ShoppeSimple to add more privacy to mobile commerce

ShoppeSimple, a new service of RSSCheck, has launched a new mobile service to track deals and exclusive offers, while preserving the consumer’s privacy.

Along with a mobile Web site and an application, the service is available on the PC Web. ShoppeSimple is an anonymous opt-in shopping portal and features more than 50 online stores.

“ShoppeSimple gives people one easy place to get deals and offers when and how they want them, without having to give up personal information to get them,” said John Hogie, chief technology officer of ShoppeSimple, Minneapolis. “More and more, people want to use their mobile devices as part of their shopping experience, so it’s a core part of our strategy.

“We have a vision with ShoppeSimple to change the relationship between merchant and consumer,” he said. “Until now, it’s only been baby steps. 

“We’re talking about realizing a vision of the future of marketing and mobile commerce.”

RSSCheck is a marketing technology company that offers a suite of consumer and business-to-business retention and prospecting tools to help clients retain customers, gain new customers and grow businesses.

Anonymous shopper
At ShoppeSimple.com, shoppers can browse and track the newest offers, deals and hone in on their favorite online stores.

The service also features a search-by-store category.

ShoppeSimple is different because most brands market by interruption while it markets through permission, per Mr. Hogie.

Mr. Hogie said the vision is that consumers will be able to go to ShoppeSimple, get the information from us and make a purchase online, from their mobile device or at a retail location.

By the end of January ShoppeSimple will be serving mobile coupons and enabling payments via mobile.

Shopping made simple
ShoppeSimple will use MixMobi technology to serve mobile coupons. Mr. Hogie said ShoppeSimple’s core offering is the ability for merchants to quickly publish product information to users who request it via its technology that is based on standard RSS.

Mr. Hogie said ShoppeSimple sees mobile coupons as an in-demand service for online and offline retailers that has immediate return

ShoppeSimple’s mobile payments model does not require a consumer to use a credit card to do a transaction because the service is about anonymity and privacy.

Mr. Hogie said ShoppeSimple’s differentiator will be that it will let the mobile user buy what they see in their ShoppeSimple feeds right from their phone. 

“They won’t have to go to the merchant’s Web site, or email the link to themselves so that they can buy later,” Mr. Hogie said.

ShoppeSimple expects to have the shopping cart function within the first half of 2010.

Mr. Hogie said for retail marketers, ShoppeSimple has made a shopping destination that delivers on consumer demand for one place that makes it easier to find deals and exclusive offers wherever they are, without making them give up their identity just to explore. 

ShoppeSimple’s mobile properties will not have advertisements.

The company monetizes its service through transactions and marketing opportunities for merchants.

“At ShoppeSimple, we’re putting together an ideal mobile offering, rather than inventing these services from whole cloth,” Mr. Hogie said. “This lets ShoppeSimple move quickly, deliver great services and perhaps most importantly, to learn from others’ mistakes.”