Talk to most people not in tech or marketing about RSS and you get a lot of blank stares. But you don’t need to know the technology to use it. For example, a June 2008 study by digital agency Razorfish found that 64 percent of digitally connected US consumers have customized a home page with the news and information they want. They’re doing it with what they call it “myYahoo” or “iGoogle” or on AOL or MSN without ever hearing the word “RSS”. Even so, 52 percent said that they use RSS feeds with some regularity.
A survey by Universal McCann in March 2008 (PDF) found that 18.6 percent of US respondents (38.2 percent globally) subscribe to an RSS feed; 25 percent of those respondents accessed them daily; 35 percent accessed them weekly.
The upshot: The success of portals like iGoogle and MyYahoo! show that the experience of using RSS can be made simple and seamless. ShoppeSimple is taking this even further by creating a way to improve the experience of shopping and staying connected to brand through TransactionalRSS.