A number of Internet sites have popped up in recent months offering side-by-side wireless services pricing comparison and purchasing. But some are evolving to become much more.
The wireless industry soon could see a total of eight to 10 Web sites offering consumers the ability to purchase handsets and pricing plans via the Internet, said Richard Siber, associate partner with Andersen Consulting in Boston.
“The wireless industry has created a very complicated buying process for a consumer,” said Siber. “It is a natural evolution for the Internet and e-commerce in particular to provide one-stop comparison shopping capability to help the buyer sort through a plethora of rate plans, handset choices and, of course, noncompatible competing standards.”
While early Web sites such as point.com offer pricing comparison services, other companies are launching sites and are expanding into more facets of customer care, customer retention and other marketing segments, such as prepaid services with replenishment capability.
“From the carrier perspective, it gives them another channel to distribute products very cost effectively,” said Siber, who is chairing a panel on Web marketing during this week’s PCS ’99 show in New Orleans. “Those sites that create stickiness will allow carriers to much better manage their customer-retention programs.”
Mobile-phone dealer Let’s Talk Cellular is leveraging its nationwide retail presence by offering Web-site purchasing capability. This gives the consumer the ability to conveniently compare prices on the Web and physically go into the store for any type of service or customer care, said Siber.
The e-commerce division of Nexage.com Inc., Buyphone.com-which recently signed an Internet marketing agreement with AT&T Wireless Services Inc.-launched MessageME, a free global messaging center service where consumers can send a text message to any wireless phone or pager through any wireless provider.
Broadvision Inc., a supplier of e-business applications, has introduced a site called Cellmania.com that not only offers purchasing services but is a customer’s one point of contact for pre-sales and post-sales questions. The site also offers consumer ratings and feedback on products.
“We can help carriers control inventory and get more real-time knowledge of what people are buying and not buying,” said Ronjon Nag, president and chief executive officer of Cellmania.com, which has agreements with 40 carriers nationwide. “There may be an issue where a customer may be about to switch carriers, and we can pre-empt that by cutting deals with the customer.”
The possibilities seem endless. Nag said his company introduced the Web site with the vision of offering carriers another distribution channel while retaining customer relationships through enhancing the Web site’s content and capabilities. This could include bolstering pricing comparisons by finding customers the best rates based on certain usage parameters and notifying customers of handset recalls via e-mail.
“The content part is where we have just started with a simple e-mail application,” said Nag.
Handsets that have Internet-browsing capability should strengthen Cellmania.com’s content even further, said Nag.
“We could add different features and content to handsets,” said Nag. “We expect a lot of creativity such as special offers that are location- and time-specific and depend on who you are … We need some phones that have browsers to get the best utilities out of content services.”
