The use of location-based services like Foursquare, SCVNGR and Gowalla has increased dramatically with the adoption of smartphones and mobile connectivity. By downloading an app that identifies where users are geographically, users can earn rewards and social recognition the more they check-in at registered locations. For local business owners, this can mean free advertising from customers eager to share their whereabouts with other users in return for discounts and rewards.

Mobile Apps for Retailers: A Quick Look

By the time you are reading this article which was written 6-10 days ago, everything that I am writing about might have changed. Of course I am exaggerating a little bit but that is how fast the world of mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, changes. Just when you think you have a handle on the subject, something new is introduced. Let me give you the current and accepted concepts that are changing the face of retailing via our smart phones.

You may have heard of this new social phenomenon called Foursquare and asked yourself, “What the heck is Foursquare?”

Foursquare is location based social network/mobile application where users “check in” at venues on their iPhones, BlackBerrys, Android and other smart phones to share with friends via mobile updates, or updates to their Twitter and/or Facebook pages. Users can become the “mayor” of a location by checking in at a venue more than anyone else in a 60 day period (only one check in per day is counted). Users can also unlock badges by completing certain milestones and other tasks.

When habits are broken they can NEVER be put back together again. Old habits are breaking faster than ever before and no one even cares about putting them back together. Whoever thought our cell phone might not be the ultimate tool for our communication? Today our phones have become our electronic wallets, and what was in everybody’s wallet was our little black book of all our important phone numbers and addresses. Those phone numbers and addresses became our social life and activities.