RSS is mainly used by bloggers and media companies to distribute their latest blog updates and news flashes. Adding to the mix, Offertrax is bringing Really Simple Syndication to the retail sector, offering consumers more purchasing intelligence and online merchants a new way to convert site visits into sales.

According to Offertrax, less than 3% of site visits convert to a sale. By letting merchants use RSS to distribute updates on products, Offertrax aims to bring visitors back for future conversions. How it works? The web-based application creates RSS feeds for entire online catalogues. Retailers just add a 'track this' button to each product page.

Consumers can then subscribe to a product's feed. As soon as a product's price changes or a retailer announces a special offer, trackers are notified. Merchants can also send notes and deal alerts directly to trackers. The service is free for consumers and merchants are charged a fee.

While RSS uptake by average internet users is still relatively low, industry experts predict that 2007 will be a tipping point. Mainstream adoption of RSS is speculated to get a real boost this year as new versions of widely used applications (IE7, Outlook 2007, Yahoo! Mail Beta, Apple's Mail in OSX 10.5) fully integrate syndication. Which presents great opportunities for merchants and marketers who are finding it increasingly difficult to get email offers through to spam-deluged consumers.

From the consumer's side, services like Offertrax are an effective way to satisfy their shopping infolust, delivering exactly the information they choose to receive. Offertrax is currently in closed beta and only available to US retailers. Time to set up a similar service in your own part of the world? Or be inspired to develop an equally promising method of using RSS to connect merchants, products and buyers.

Website: www.offertrax.com
Contact: contact@offertrax.com / Skype: ronaldcpruettjr

Technological advancements don't always have to be useful or change the world in a profound and meaningful way. Sometimes, they can just be fun. Like colored bubbles. A world's first, Zubbles are the result of 10 years of kitchen sink experiments by chemist Tim Kehoe, VP of R&D at product design firm Ascadia.

The bubbles work just like ordinary blowing bubbles, but come in rich, vibrant colors that are nearly opaque. The color is created with patented specialty dyes that disappear when exposed to air, water or pressure, and are non-staining and non-toxic. Announced in 2005 and awarded a Popular Science award the same year, Zubbles colored bubbles will finally be making their way to stores this spring.

Retailers: if you're interested in distributing Zubbles, please visit global license holder Spin Master's website to complete their distribution application. Should be a big hit in summer 2007 ;-) And since bubbles bring out the delighted child in everyone, events organizers might want to add Zubbles to their bag of tricks for summer events.

Website: www.zubbles.com
Contact: zubbles@spinmaster.com

For romantics that can't hold a tune, Canadian TailoredMusic.com now offers the perfect service: customized love songs performed by professional musicians. Customers pick a vocalist and genre, ranging from experimental to folk waltz. The website then shows the default lyrics for the song they selected. While a demo of the song plays in the background, customers edit the lyrics in an easy to use online word processing tool. Some lyrics must be customized (the love object's name), while other fields are written for easy customization, allowing users to add personal experiences, locations, events, colors, etc. Any words or lines can be changed, and TailoredMusic's singers can adapt to varying numbers of syllables and different rhyming schemes.

Once the right words have been selected, a customer can choose to receive the song as a web download (compressed MP3 and CD-quality WAV), or a gift-wrapped CD in a metal case with a printed lyric sheet. Delivery time is 1 to 2 weeks, and songs are priced from USD 99-249; ordering the 'premium' physical product adds one week to the delivery time and USD 20 to the price.

Behind the scenes, studio musicians get to work on the order, working through rhythmic changes, rehearsing and recording new vocals, re-applying digital effects and remixing. TailoredMusic is actively seeking musicians and songwriters to add to their portfolio, offering musical minipreneurs the opportunity to work from their own (home) studios, whenever it suits them. One to partner with if you're in the gift-giving business. (Valentine's Day is just around the corner...) Of course there's also plenty of room for localized versions, offering songs in languages other than English. Get lyrical! ;-)

Website: www.tailoredmusic.com
Contact: business@tailoredmusic.com

Taking advantage of the hype following the recent release of Nintendo's Wii console, Mr Cloud's T-Shirt Emporium lets customers order a t-shirt with their Mii printed on it. For those of you who haven't yet gotten your hands on a Wii, a Mii is a user's avatar—a 3D caricature that can be designed by choosing from a wide variety of facial and body features and colors. Miis serve as a player's character when playing games.

As Mr Cloud explains: "Much of the initial time on our newfangled Nintendo Wii was spent creating highly realistic Mii replicas of ourselves, our friends and many famous dead people. Wouldn't it be fun, we thought, if our creations of ourselves could be proudly displayed on a t-shirt?"

Customers can add Mr Cloud as a friend on their Wii, and then beam over their Mii using the Wii's built-in send functionality. The Mii-shirts (GBP 19.99 / USD 35) are custom-printed and dispatched within a few days. Sounds like a fun and very now example of gravanity, and a neat low-cost business idea for Wiired t-shirt printers across the world, especially when Nintendo starts making more consoles available to countries outside North America and Japan.

Website: www.mrcloud.com
Contact: www.mrcloud.com/contact_us.php

NOTE: We've received various alarming messages from people who paid for a Mii shirt but haven't received the product. While we still think this was a fun business concept, we would advise you not to order one. Please also see the comments below.

For all you retail buffs: 10 of the most innovative retail concepts we covered last year, both offline and online, and from across the world. (This is the last post in our series of top business ideas of 2006.) Enjoy!

1. A deal a day: What's the ultimate in curated consumption? Limiting your customer's choice to one product a day. Add a pinch of eBay-style excitement and bargain hunting, and you end up with Woot! ("one day, one deal") and iBood. Woot founder Matt Rutledge came up with the concept back in 2004, as an internet offshoot for his Dallas wholesale business. Since then, Woot's combination of great deals, highly novel approach and irreverent attitude have created a huge following. Thousands of regular buyers and visitors perch in front of their computers before midnight every day, hitting the refresh button to be the first More »


2. Luxury convenience store: Demonstrating yet again that everything can be upgraded, London's Harrods recently opened a luxury convenience store across the street from its famous Food Halls. Dubbed Harrods 102, the new store brings luxury and convenience together in a one-stop concept. Besides selling groceries and wine, Harrods 102 also houses a Yo! Sushi bar, a Krispy Kreme stand, florist, pharmacist, dry cleaning service, and oxygen bar. “These additional retail and service offers put Harrods closer to their customers’ everyday needs and delivers a new emotional relationship,” says Stephen Cribbett of Landini Associates, which designed both the store and its brand identity. More »


3. Dock and shop: The iFood terminal at Nordiska Kompaniet's food hall lets customers hook up their iPod and download audio recipes. The process is described in five simple steps (we couldn't resist including the Swedish original): 1) Docka - Plug in, 2) Ladda ner - Download, 3) Handla - Purchase, 4) Lyssna - Listen, and 5) Laga - Cook. After choosing from a wide range of recipes and downloading audio instructions to their iPod or other mp3 player, shoppers can purchase all necessary items from a colour-coded deli area. iFood is an exclusive cooperation between Nordiska Kompaniet/NK, an upmarket Stockholm warehouse with More »


4. Mastic fantastic: There's a new premium commodity in town, and its name is mastiha. Those of you with no ties to the Eastern Mediterranean or the Middle-East are forgiven for not knowing exactly what mastiha, or mastic gum, is. It's a product of the mastic tree, which is mainly cultivated on Chios, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Small cuts are made in the bark of the tree, the sap seeps out and congeals into 'tears' of resin, which are harvested and cleaned by hand. The resinous result has been popular and highly valued in the region for thousands of More »


5. Shop-in-a-box: The latest in the world of pop-up retail? From Singapore comes the Venue VBOX, a portable store in a shipping container, which can be set-up temporarily. Any place. Any time. The VBOX enables a brand or company to follow an event they wish to align their brand with, or pop up where consumers least expect it. Tag along with a photography exhibition or set up shop temporarily at a large sporting event. Brands can even showcase items that consumers may not otherwise be able to purchase elsewhere: just fill the VBOX with one-offs or special editions and you'll pull More »


6. Convenient for women: Combining what our sister site trendwatching.com calls ‘Forever Trends’ (as in trends that will remain trends forever), Japanese convenience store Happily exclusively targets women. The thinking behind this concept? Convenience in a time-compressed world is priceless, and products specifically tailored to, oh, half of the earth’s population, make sense. In Happily’s own words, the stores are ‘of, for and by women’. The first outlet, located in Tokyo’s Toranomon business district, offers cosmetics and nutritional supplements. Only 20 percent of the products are the same as those at conventional am/pm outlets. Clerks are all women, except at night. To enable More »


7. Ranking Ranqueen: We don't mind spelling it out again: in an age of abundance, curators rule! Riding the CURATED CONSUMPTION trend in all its glory is Japanese Ranking Ranqueen, a Tokyo chain selling only the top 3, 5 or 10 items in a bewildering range of categories. Rankings are based on sales data from big Tokyo department stores and independent research. Think best-selling lists for bath powder. Tooth picks. Pasta sauce. Cell phones. And so on. Rankings are updated every week, mercilessly replacing the out of favor with the Next Big Thing. There are eight Ranking Ranqueen stores in total: five More »


8. Quick delivery e-commerce: In the San Francisco Bay area and Atlanta, two e-commerce companies are betting on the appeal of almost-instant delivery. Back in the '90s, Kozmo offered speedy delivery of anything an urban dweller might want or need fast, without leaving their home or office. Pack of diapers or a bag of Cheetos - everything was delivered under an hour. No delivery fee, and no minimum order amount. Although they turned a profit in New York, Kozmo expanded to other cities too quickly, infamously burned through USD 280 million in venture capital, and went bust in 2001. Kozmo's former CTO went More »


9. Brave new retail world: Yet another fashion/lifestyle brand has discovered the promise of virtual worlds and virtual retail, in this case dressing virtual inhabitants: American Apparel (the sweat-shop free apparel phenomenon) will open its virtual doors tomorrow (Saturday, 17 June 2006). The store, set on a private island within Second Life, was designed by Aimee Weber, a Second Life resident and designer, in conjunction with American Apparel's own architect. The store will sell 20 familiar American Apparel items for avatars, including the women's jersey polo dress. The company will charge a token sum of about USD 1 per item. It's (surprisingly!) the first More »


10. Sexy supermarkets in the Alps: MPreis, a chain of supermarkets in western Austria, bills itself as "The Seriously Sexy Supermarket". The company's stores literally stand out because of their unusual and progressive architecture. MPreis has been commissioning up and coming architects for the last fifteen years, encouraging them to design buildings that make the most of their settings in the Tyrolean Alps. Which is in stark contrast to most chain retailers, who find a formula and repeat it, regardless of location. A keen eye for aesthetics continues inside the stores, which feature sleek café's and carefully chosen materials. And the experience goes beyond design More »