Being in charge of the R&D behind the Holiday Gift Guide built by Nearbynow, I’ll share some thoughts with you on the present and the future of this app.

First of all, we built a platform that extends far beyond the client interface in the form of the iPhone app. Behind the scene there is a comprehensive solution for content aggregation, inventory management, customer communication and notification system, ad targeting system, as well as reporting and analytics. Just think about all the efforts required for daily management of content from such diverse sources as magazines, retailers and brands. Then add to it aggregating and managing the availability information for all the products (just because the magazine editor selected an item for this season’s gift guide, doesn’t mean it’s actually sold anywhere ). Then add real time content update, including prices, stores and store hours, images and videos. Then add all technology required for push notifications, availability and reservation systems with different retailers. Then add all the viral components allowing mobile users to share their products with other mobile and non-mobile consumers. Then the system for tracking and analysis of real time traffic (much dipper than Fleury does for you)… pretty soon you’ll get the idea of the complexity involved in producing this platform.

It would be interesting to know that some retailers have gone pretty far to ensure that consumers will actually benefit from this app. For example, Macy’s invested in integration of their real time in-store inventory system with Nearbynow.

Of course, we are not going to stop there. After all, this is not the last holiday in our lives. The roadmap for this app and the platform is very exciting, tons of new features. Most importantly, this app and the platform brings together Media, Retailers, Brands and Consumers in the way that was not done before – location aware mobile solution with rich user experience. And the numbers prove it – double digit conversion and ad click-through rates.

Lenny Blyukher
VP of Engineering
Nearbynow, Inc.

The secret is in NearbyNow’s use of a call center to fill in the gaps between reality and science fiction. Many companies over the years have attempted to do what NearbyNow does by simply pooling real-time inventory availability. Unfortunately, that endeavor has been a fools’ errand for many years, as many prominent retailers with state-of-the-art inventory management systems still face hurdles in utilizing that data for cross-purposes such as “I saw that scarf in Lucky Magazine. I want it.” Call centers allow third parties to call and talk to an individual, directly, to get availability information, and more importantly, provide routing vectors to facilitate the shopper’s next decision.