Saturday, April 09, 2011

Online Validation

I was thinking about the parking validation systems at a lot of malls in Tokyo and thought that it would be possible to adapt this system into a cross-promotional advertising program between Internet providers and major online stores. Essentially when you go to the mall you pay a certain amount per hour for using their parking garage. Now when you go to certain shops or restaurants within the mall you get a voucher to use toward your parking expense. Likewise when you spend a lot of money at the mall the amount of vouchers above the price of parking is voided as they are only valid on the day of purchase. Essentially people that use a mall's parking lot while downtown or plan to enjoy some window-shopping must pay for parking but those who have a shopping agenda can use the parking service for free or at a discounted rate.
My thought is that you could adopt this system online. With the onset of open ID accounts that allow people to use the same username to log onto multiple websites it would be possible to track a person's online shopping to give a discount toward their monthly Internet bill. People who consistently use the Internet to make purchases would see the websites they use paying some portion of their bill to keep the user online shopping more. Likewise someone who makes a single large purchase, like an airline ticket, might receive a free month of Internet but to limit the discount to reduce the cost incurred by the shop, the shopper would not be able to carry over any accumulated discount to the following month's bill. It would be possible for websites to make deals with specific Internet providers in each country or region which would allow local Internet providers to use these deals in advertising. I think you would also see a lot of companies offering an initial or first purchase discount with some lower discount on subsequent purchases. Likewise, with viral advertising and person to person advertising becoming so popular it would be possible to offer vouchers to those who refer their friends and peers to a particular website.