One of the few people at the top of my list to meet with during my time at CES last week was Billy Chasen, the founder and CEO of stickybits.

Here’s how stickybits describes itself on the website:
Stickybits is a free app you use to scan barcodes on all the stuff you love, instantly turning it into even more stuff you love. Scan a snowboard – win free lift passes. Scan some wireless headphones – see what people say about them and check out what your friends are listening to. Scan a box of frozen chalupas – get a 2fer for even más chalupas. You get the idea. Scan any barcode. Read reviews and comments, and share your own. Score a bunch of big discounts and free stuff – both for what you’re scanning and related things you’ll like.

Definitely focusing on the consumer play there and very cool. But in speaking with Billy I wanted to see what eBay sellers could do with such a simple yet innovative tool for personalizing packages and enhancing customer experiences. There is an indirect way in which stickybits is partnered with eBay after all. The barcode scanning technology utilized by stickybits is through RedLaser, a leading barcode scanning company that eBay acquired 6 months ago.

In a nutshell, stickybits allows you to attach digital content to physical objects. Therefore, adding a personalized message to a package – using a stickybit – a seller could further the 1:1, unique connection with each buyer. Something that Billy pointed out Zappos is already taking advantage of…

It doesn’t have to just be for a big company like Zappos though. You, the individual ecommerce seller, can easily download a unique stickybit barcode and print onto a packing slip with every product you ship out. If you wanted to make each shipment truly unique to the individual buyer, you could even purchase a book of 20 stickybits for $10 (3 books for $19.95 at 33 cents a stickybit).

Is this something you’d be interested in doing? Have you already used a stickybit with a shipment? Would love to hear how folks think this would benefit the customer service experience.

Cheers,
RBH