Wal-Mart Tries Widgets, Other Web 2.0 Technology to Lure Customers
Retailers haunt Twitter, offer widgets, do online promotions to chase an illusive consumer dollar during a bad economy
The widget was built by Web development firm Rockfish Interactive using Javascript. It runs on the Yahoo Widget Platform. Wal-Mart and Rockfish chose those technologies, according to a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, for "their stability, broad user base and ability to reach both Mac and Windows users."
In May, Wal-Mart started a Web site called "Savemore" where visitors can register to submit money-saving tips and read those left by others (redeem soda cans for money back, buy dishtowels at yard sales). Podcasts from financial planner Ellie Kay talk about following a budget and changing your car's oil filter to conserve gas. Kay held a live chat in June covering similar topics.
Two Wal-Mart spokeswomen declined to talk about the company's intentions in developing Web 2.0 technologies or its metrics for measuring the performance of the widget and Web site. Rockfish technology director Jerry Osmus, who worked in IT at Wal-Mart from 2001 to 2006, didn't return a phone call requesting an interview.
Paine's assessment of Wal-Mart's approach to these techniques is that it's more about disseminating marketing information rather than starting electronic conversations that lead to customer loyalty or a good corporate reputation online. Wal-Mart has lost its technology edge, according to some analysts and last year rolled back its expectations for RFID.
Recent reviews of Summize, which is a searchable index of Twitter conversations, and of Google Blog Search, which allows searches of keywords that appear in blogs, show that Wal-Mart's widget and "savemore" Web site aren't generating much buzz, Paine says. She says she is not working with Wal-Mart and has no inside knowledge of the companyâ¬"s online strategies.
From a marketing perspective, she sees the retailer's use of Web 2.0 technology as "not really a listening device," she says. "It's a pushing device. It's a yelling-ever-louder device."
In May, Wal-Mart filed for a U.S. trademark on "staycation." The application is pending.
