Threatmetrix founder to fight 'muffin apocalypse'

'Post-search' play cuts out wireless retail marketing noise

Serial entrepreneur David Jones, who has chalked up hits with SurfControl and Threatmetrix, now plans to fight back against what he calls the “muffin apocalypse” - the blizzard of offers for freebies or cheap extra goodies beamed to opted-in smartphone owners when they go shopping.

Speaking this week at Geonext, a Sydney conference for GIS types and self-confessed GeoGeeks, Jones outlined his alternative – an app and web service dubbed Streethawk which only alerts wandering shoppers to offers for goods they've already said they want to buy.

The StreetHawk app prods users to set up profiles of their desired goods. For now that stuff has to be clothes and accessories, as Jones and partner Natasha Rawlings feel fashion retailers desperately need help driving customers through the door. Once a punter crosses the threshold, the pair say, retailers can count on interest-to-purchase conversion rates far beyond those experienced online.

To make this scenario come alive, the pair have landed deals with numerous retailers who share information about their inventory through a cloud service. Real time matching, a technology Jones is familiar with from his time at Threatmetrix, matches available products to punters in the area and sends alerts.

Jones and Rawlings call this approach “post-search” and tip it to beat out random offers beamed through malls. The pair hope to turn the shopping frenzies of 1.9 million Australian women aged 14-40 into a revenue stream of commissions paid by retailers. ®