msmobiles.com - Cellular News - The Carphone Warehouse selects Bango for its mobile content “shop”

The Carphone Warehouse selects Bango for its mobile content “shop”
April 06, 2004;
the problem is not the content itself (polytones, textones, voice alerts, Java games and wallpapers) but how to get it delivered to end customers...

Bango delivers widest choice of content and services through an innovative ”browse and buy” shopping experience

The Carphone Warehouse, the largest independent retailer of mobile communications in Europe, has selected Bango.net technology to enable fast, easy access and flexible payment options for its new mobile content “shop”. Developed by Ringtones.co.uk, the mobile shop offers an exciting range of content for phone users including polytones, textones, voice alerts, Java games and wallpapers.

Users in the UK access The Carphone Warehouse’s mobile shop simply by texting go cartones to 87121 or through a bookmark on their phone. They can browse through thousands of different ringtones and pictures, review the latest charts and see what’s new. They can click to buy any content and download it directly on their phone.

“Traditionally, mobile users have had to read catalogues or complicated adverts, then text special codes and words to get the ringtone or picture they wanted,” said Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango.net. “The Carphone Warehouse has made the process much simpler and user friendly by cutting out the complexity and giving people a wider choice of up-to-date content.”

“This new mobile site will boost our incremental revenue by providing our customers with a great after-sales offering,” said Charles Dunstone, CEO of The Carphone Warehouse. “I really like the browse and buy shopping experience on the phone; it should be a big hit with our customers.”

Businesses using Bango technology have learned that enabling users to preview and select from a range of content on their phone generates higher customer satisfaction and lower after-sales costs. Happier users have been shown to translate directly into higher spend and more repeat purchases as people return to buy more.

To help mobile users easily pay for content, Bango’s innovative technology dynamically offers different payment options depending upon where the user is connecting from and from which network. These include on the phone bill by operator billing systems such as Vodafone m-pay or Premium SMS, by credit/debit card or by premium rate phone call. Bango’s automatic payment capabilities currently enable hundreds of millions of mobile customers to pay for content and services, on any network, anywhere in the world.

Ringtones.co.uk, an existing partner of The Carphone Warehouse, also supplies the retailer with in-store “retail” ringtone packs. “Integrating with the Bango service was a surprisingly painless experience even though we have a huge library of content in a range of formats and stringent technical and support requirements,” commented Tom Erskine, Business Development Manager of ringtones.co.uk. “We look forward to working with Bango on other projects and helping The Carphone Warehouse to expand and refine their mobile offerings.”

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