Home Shopping Network is best known for its cable presence and for selling online through HSN.com, which accounts for 30% of its revenue. But in August the direct retailer opened a third-screen sales front, with a free app for the iPhone that lets shoppers watch, browse and buy from its 35,000-item inventory over their Apple smartphones.

And since video programming is such an integral part of HSN's sales tactic, both on TV and on the Web site, the HSN Shop app also includes streaming video.

“We know our best customer loves to interact with the HSN brand,” says Brian Bradley, executive vice president and general manager of HSN.com and advanced services. “The easier and more frequent we can make that interaction, the better our relationship with her.“

HSN.com has not optimized its main Web site for access via mobile phone, so why go straight for the iPhone? “It felt like a natural starting point for us,” says Bradley — a combination of specific requests from consumers and a high regard for the ability of Apple's iTunes App Store to promote and market such software.

The other reason for taking aim at iPhone first was the desire to offer live streaming video from the start. Deploying Inlet's Spinnaker encoding on the Apple platform lets HSN.com stream with a minimum of buffering. The resulting viewing experience is remarkably TV-like.

HSN's competitors have also reached out to mobile users. QVC offers an iPhone app, but it's not free ($2.99) and features only items shown on the retailer's UK channel. ShopNBC.com also offers a .mobi Web site with transactional ability. But Bradley says HSN's app was developed not so much in reaction to those rivals but with an eye toward what customers would find useful and sticky.

For example, users can play with a “Shake2Shop” game that lets them jiggle the phone and generate random product recommendations, along with coupons and special offers — like the popular UrbanSpoon restaurant picker, but for dresses and jewelry.

“We've had multichannel games on our Web site and our TV channel for years now, and they've been extremely popular,” Bradley says. “People have been on the message boards all the time talking about how they enjoy the chance to win coupons. So we wanted a way to re-create that fun within the iPhone.”

Eventually, though, it comes down to serious shopping. The HSN Shop app lets users sort through items by designer, clearance promotions, most popular products, and those offering free shipping. And the company made sure to carry over some of its most popular TV and Web features by highlighting Today's Special and letting viewers go back to find a clickable list of last items aired.

Users can buy either by going directly through the phone's Web browser or by calling and speaking to a company operator. But shoppers who might have reservations about offering credit card information over mobile — still a new experience for most — can save items they're interested in to a wish list, then go to the HSN.com Web site and pull up that list for purchase.

“Giving the customer options is important,” Bradley says. “Mobile commerce is so new that it's best to offer whatever makes it easiest for them.”
— BRIAN QUINTON

TIPS: CAN YE HEAR ME NOW?

Ever feel the urge to chuck the cubicle life, swap your Blackberry for a blue beard, and swash and buckle around the Spanish Main? Visitors to the “Real Pirates” exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History can literally hear the call of the pirate life by texting to a short code. ■ The exhibit documents the history of the Whydah, a British slave ship turned to piracy in the 18th century; it opened in May and runs through October. As part of its first-ever SMS campaign, the Field Museum and agency DDB Chicago called on LNS Mobile to extend engagement with the event beyond its walls using mobile. Opt-in users can get pirate quizzes, a treasure hunt Q&A, and downloadable free ringtones such as a call to “answer yer phone, ye scalawag!” ■ The campaign drew more than 1,200 unique opt-ins by mid-August, sent more than 7,500 text messages, and delivered thousands of recorded calls featuring pirate voices wishing friends happy birthday or inviting them to join the crew. ■ “The Field as an institution was not necessarily engaged with mobile, and for their first effort, I think this has been great,” says David Spear, LNS' EVP of business development. “It really opens their eyes to a technology they can leverage for future exhibits.”
— Brian Quinton

DID YOU KNOW?

WiFi Workaround: Don't be so sure how many of your Web visitors come to your site from standard PCs. Some of those touches may be from an iPhone via WiFi rather than AT&T's overburdened 3G network.

According to San Francisco-based WiFi provider Meraki, 32% of the devices logged into its WiFi network were from Apple, up from 14% in June 2008.

Much of that growth came from the new iPhone and iPod Touch devices, which can work over WiFi. But Intel-based devices (read Windows laptops) were down to 19% of the access points this year, from 24% in June 2008.

Likely conclusion: People are getting around wireless carriers' slowing 3G networks by using their iPhone to log onto WiFi. Blackberry and Nokia devices were also up for Meraki.

Why care? Because even if you don't show lots of incoming Web traffic from mobile carriers, your site may be getting viewed by plenty of mobile phone users. And marketers who don't factor those third-screen visitors into their Web design are risking turning away visits — and sales.
— Brian Quinton

Got a mobile marketing tip to share? Contact Brian Quinton at [email protected]