The brilliant team that figured out how to engineer personalized, micro-targeted engagement for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign has officially announced the launch of a revolutionary mobile commerce platform called Modest. Harper Reed, CEO, and Dylan Richard, CTO; both formerly of Threadless prior to running the tech for Obama for America, have been working in stealth to develop and hire at Modest.
“Modest is poised to create major shifts in the mobile shopping experience,” announced Google’s Eric Schmidt, who is backing the company. This platform allows retailers to create a free mobile app store or drop a smooth shopping experience into an existing mobile app in minutes. One major change to this mobile platform: No shopping carts.
“Modest doesn’t have a cart; we have found that making one purchase at a time results in a larger overall spend by the customer. Instead, Modest groups together purchases made by a customer during a given period of time — the ‘purchase grouping window’ — of your choosing. Once an order has finalized, we will notify you that the order is ready to be fulfilled. You will also see it in your shopping platform and your inventory will be updated accordingly,” explains Reed on the Modest FAQ.
Besides the removal of shopping carts, consumers will enjoy a vastly improved experience with the creation of a purchase edit window. Retailers can set the length of the edit window to allow customers to return to the site within a few hours of the purchase to perform corrections and avoid a back-and-forth email chain that can last for days and create endless frustration.
He added, “Shopping carts have no business being on a phone. We have created a mobile commerce platform retailers are able to install and use in a few clicks and gives consumers the ability to buy from anywhere in just a few taps.”
Famous coffee shop Intelligentsia is an incredible example of the Modest experience. “We have passionate customers who were already interacting with our coffee brand in our current mobile app,” said Matt Riddle, head of ecommerce at Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea. “In one afternoon, Modest dropped in an elegant purchasing option for easy shopping for our Intelligentsia enthusiasts. We love it!”
“Sadly, e-‐commerce hasn’t changed much in 15 years, despite the fact that technology has evolved, the popularity of smartphones has exploded and people shop with an intention to have what they want instantly,” said CEO Reed. “We focus on your mobile commerce strategy so that you don’t have to,” he added.
Mobile now drives nearly half of all ecommerce transactions, and Modest recognizes this as an upward trend as the number of mobile devices outnumber the global human population. The most mobile generation, millennials, will spend more than $200 billion annually starting in 2017, and $10 trillion in their lifetimes.
Modest is currently offering iOS apps free service for the first six months. To find out more visit their website.