Now You Can Shop via Text Message

As if you didn’t already have enough temptations to spend money, a new company called ShopText lets you buy CDs, clothes, and more just by sending a text message from your phone.

You have to set up an account with your credit card first. But this means that consumers don’t even have to visit store Web sites in order to make a purchase.

“MasterCard is testing mobile payment in New York with Nokia phones that can be used to shop at stores like CVS and McDonald’s, using a radio technology called near-field communication. Other marketers are experimenting with other systems like Bluetooth, G.P.S. and bar codes,” according to The New York Times. But this is the first fully-developed system that lets you use any phone to buy something with a simple text message.

Featured “shops” include CosmoGirl! and Lucky magazines, although we also saw logos for EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Vibe, and other big media companies plastered on the ShopText homepage.

New Form of Impulse: Shopping via Text Message [The New York Times]

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