Developments in technology continue to be targeted to making it easier for consumers to spend their money.

Currently, Sprint is developing a way for consumers to pay for goods and services using their cell phones. It is teaming with eOne Global LP, an affiliate of financial-processing company First Data Corp. to design a US mobile-payment network. Customers will store their credit card and bank account numbers in the phone’s memory. By hitting a few keys, they’ll select services and method of payment, including the option to charge it to their cell-phone bills. Upon checkout, customers will push predesignated buttons on their phones to authorize payment. The phone communicates with an in-store server using short-range wireless technologies. The server logs the purchase and sends the details to the appropriate bank or credit-card company.

Sprint and eOne hope for a natural progression to virtual wallets that let customers buy goods in stores. Initially, Sprint will market the payment option to customers who want to buy and download, premium services for their phones.

The concept is widely endorsed and used in Asia. Three other groups are working on mobile-commerce systems. None expects to have service until next year. Providers must clear some major hurdles, including giving merchants an incentive to install the system and convincing consumers that it’s more convenient than conventional commerce. It has to be as easy as pulling out cash or a credit card.

The "Let’s Go Shopping" electronic-coupon-booklet program offers manufacturer discounts to consumers on a variety of products. Under the program, a pocket-sized booklet with a barcode on the back is distributed to customers of participating supermarkets each month. Shoppers don’t have to remove the coupons from the booklet. They just present the back of the booklet for scanning. The booklet is returned to the shopper and used over and over, until a new book with new coupons arrives for the next month.

Piggly Wiggly employees helped roll out the program by using it themselves during a week of testing. Aurora, CO-based IN Store Media Systems installed the point-of-sale software for the program. Let’s Go Shopping is based in Cos Cob, CT. The chain says it’s continuing to test and evaluate the program.

Sources: Sprint aims for nationwide wireless-payment network by next year. (2002, May 27). Informationweek, 26. Coupons: Something Old, Something New. (2002, April). Chain Store Age, 75.

Talk

You were born to be creative!

In the late 1940’s, a group of psychologists were discussing the lack of creativity in most adults. They speculated that by the age of 45, there was only a minute percentage of the population who could think creatively. To prove that assumption they designed a creativity test and gave it to a group of 45-year-olds. Less than 5 percent of them were judged creative by the test.

They continued testing by reducing the age of the subjects. They tested at ages 40, 35, 30, 25, and 20 years old. The 5 percent creativity figure stayed basically the same for all these groups. Finally at 17 years old the percentage of creative individuals rose to 10 percent. At the age of 5, it sky rocketed to over 90 percent! The conclusion? Almost everyone is highly creative at age 5.

Source: Goman, Carol K. (1989). Creativity in business. Los Altos, CA: Crisp Publications, Inc. .