Soft Cell Brian Quinton June 1, 2007 Analysts keep saying that in the United States there are eight cell phones to every PC. But so far, the mobile sphere is rife with unrealized potential. Mobile marketing is confined largely to messages advertisers are pretty sure young users will be glad to opt into, such as video clips from upcoming movies. And m-commerce is still restricted, for the most part, to content subscriptions and digital downloads of ringtones and wallpapers. In other words, those who are doing something to sell their wares on cell phones still very much qualify for the tag “pioneers.” But some companies are taking the leap into mobile, assuming that planting a flag in the space now will pay off in lessons learned and presence earned when the third screen comes into its own. That's the approach taken by Moosejaw Mountaineering, an outdoor specialty chain that opened its first store in Keego Harbor, MI 15 years ago. Before expanding to six Midwestern stores, a catalog business and an e-commerce Web site, Moosejaw's marketing approach was to try everything — including parking-lot whiffle-ball games to draw customers during slow periods. “Because we were young, our marketing ended up skewing to a younger customer,” says founder and CEO Robert Wolfe. “Then it was by accident; now we do it on purpose.” Since its young customers live on their cell phones, Moosejaw figured it was time to start showing its products there. “Having our Web site available on a digital device and doing text messaging are really important to us,” Wolfe says. “Our customers almost demand them.” Launched in beta in December, Moosejaw's mobile site uses an m-commerce platform called GoMobile! provided by Seattle-based mPoria. Users surf to www.Moosejaw.mobi, where they can scan and search the retailer's product line, relayed through a data feed from Moosejaw. When they've found what they want, shoppers can enter their credit card information in the mPoria platform, choose a shipping method and place the order. Dan Wright, mPoria CEO, saw that mobile held latent promise as a sales channel back in 2003, when more than $1 billion in physical goods were purchased via mobile phones in Japan. “People looked at ringtones, wallpaper and mobile game sales in Japan and said they would never be big here,” he says. “But we're emulating the Japanese market five or six years after the fact.”

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