14 DAY TRIAL // WineZap.com has introduced a new text message based service that allows wine lovers to access wine prices and local availability through their mobile phones.
The WineZap Mobile service is simple to use. A mobile phone user texts the vintage and name of a wine to [email protected] in an email, SMS, or MMS format. WineZap Mobile will respond with a listing of the current high, low and average prices for that wine. If the text message includes a 5 digit U.S. zip code, the response will include the name, phone and pricing of nearby wine retailers offering that wine.
The pricing and retailer information is from WineZap's advanced search engine. The system collects wine pricing information from over 700 U.S. retailers, normalizes the data and aggregates it.
Michael Stajer, WineCommune's (WineZap's parent company) CEO, sees the new service as a consumer friendly advance: "WineZap Mobile gives consumers a huge advantage in their wine purchasing. Most wine buying still happens in wine shops and supermarkets. With our service, you can see a wine at a store, send a text message and find out right away if it is a good price. You can even see a list of other nearby retailers and their pricing!"
"This type of service is what's next. People want access to product information and pricing data wherever and whenever they make purchases, not just in front of their computer," continued Stajer. WineZap Mobile is part of the first generation of mobile product information services. For the future, WineZap is working on a service that allows mobile phone users to send an image of a wine label and get, in depth, product and pricing information.