As the executive creative director of R/GA’s mobile and social platforms group, I couldn't be more excited retail conference
I think retail is where the action is right now and today I'm going to talk about a few reasons why.
I 'm going to use some specific examples from the work I've been doing with tiffany, but I think this could apply to almost every brand.
There is no where that I’d rather be right now than here at this retail conference talking to you. I think retail is rapidly becoming ground zero for digital innovation and that in the next 3 years the retail landscape will be radically transformed. Nervous? And mobile technology is going to be at the center of it.
Mobile in retail is blowing up right now and we have projects in all of these areas. Today we’re going to focus on apps for consumers and sales staff and alerts that are activated through beacons and gps.
A new study from eMarketer predicts U.S. ecommerce sales will rise 15.5% in 2014 to reach 6.4% of total retail sales. While online sales remain a small portion of total sales, the report also looks at the influence of digital channels in the purchase path. “Webrooming” and “showrooming” are rising trends, with consumers searching for products online before purchasing them in store, and vice versa. It will become increasingly important for retailers to adopt a singular view of the shopping experience (look to Apple and the hiring of Angela Ahrendts as the SVP of retail and online stores) rather than silo consumers into online or offline channels.
futurevision.rga.com/2014/05/weekly-roundup-11/
This relative scale has made many retailers more or less immune to the changes brought about by digital. Sure you have an ecommerce site and you probably also have a mobile optimized site and perhaps even an app or two. But at the end of the day retail is where the revenue comes from and so that’s where your attention has been.
A new study from eMarketer predicts U.S. ecommerce sales will rise 15.5% in 2014 to reach 6.4% of total retail sales. While online sales remain a small portion of total sales, the report also looks at the influence of digital channels in the purchase path. “Webrooming” and “showrooming” are rising trends, with consumers searching for products online before purchasing them in store, and vice versa. It will become increasingly important for retailers to adopt a singular view of the shopping experience (look to Apple and the hiring of Angela Ahrendts as the SVP of retail and online stores) rather than silo consumers into online or offline channels.
futurevision.rga.com/2014/05/weekly-roundup-11/
How digital is changing and innovating the retail experience for consumers. E.g. Nordstrom's uses tablets to enhance the shoe buying and checking out process.
The Rise Of Concept Stores
A new wave of thinking about brick-and-mortar retail has given rise to a surge in brands experimenting with concept stores, with many turning to magazines and museums for inspiration. Featured in the Guardian, R/GA’s David Womack explains that concept stores leveraging technology effectively can close the loop between digital and physical, overcoming the problem of attributing online marketing to offline sales. According to Womack, “as we are able to have a single view of the customer from digital to retail, this will change the nature of the [physical] retail experience. Stores will become more like galleries”. futurevision.rga.com/2014/07/weekly-roundup-17/
How digital is changing and innovating the retail experience for consumers. E.g. Nordstrom's uses tablets to enhance the shoe buying and checking out process.
Mannequins, Lights, Hangers
Iconeme, a new technology and design company, has launched VMBeacon, a product that lets store mannequins transmit information to shoppers about the clothes on display. Via a VMBeacon installed into each mannequin, information programmed by the retailer is transmitted to consumers using a smartphone app. If a shopper comes within a 100m range of the VMBeacon they will receive an automatic alert with information on prices and links to purchase the items directly from the retailer’s website, or the location of them in store.
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/03/26/new-vmbeacon-technology-enables-customers-receive-information-store-mannequins
GE Lighting and ByteLight today announced they will showcase the next generation of LED lighting fixtures that communicate with shoppers’ smart devices while in-store, enabling retailers to provide exciting new location-based services using GE LED infrastructure. The innovative solution featuring GE’s Lumination™ LED Luminaire – IS Series… The solution combines Visible Light Communication (VLC), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and inertial device sensors, and supports any Android or iOS application on a smart device equipped with a camera and/or Bluetooth® Smart technology. The comprehensive approach enables retailers to reach a broad number of shoppers across the largest area—from the parking lot to anywhere in the store there is LED light.
http://9to5mac.com/2014/05/29/ge-integrates-ibeacons-in-new-led-lighting-fixtures-rolling-out-in-walmart-other-retailers/
Swiss outdoor clothing brand Mammut has launched a retail system called Beacon.Store spanning online, mobile and offline that helps bring shoppers' online preferences and social graph information into the physical store. The brand sent out an email to its most loyal customers, making them aware of the app and asking them to download it. Users that did so could log in with Social Connect (which lets users log-in using their social media details) and could then save their favourite pieces of Mammut clothing within the app. All items that users shared on Facebook or pinned on Pinterest were also saved to the user’s online profile. Mammut then fitted a prototype store with low-energy Bluetooth Beacons, which allowed the brand to identify when customers with the app on their phone walked in. As the customer browsed the items in the store, interactive lighting acted as a visual guidance system, leading people to the items they had favourited or pinned online (see video above). That information was also beamed to a nearby shop assistant’s tablet, enabling them to better help the shopper.
https://www.contagious.io/articles/click-and-connect
http://gigaom.com/2014/02/17/philips-new-intelligent-store-lighting-can-track-shoppers/
Online Beauty Retailer Opens Personalized Store Powered by Artificial Intelligence
With 4,500 square feet and an assortment of beauty and lifestyle products from over 250 brands, the location boasts several features, each of which corresponds to a facet of its online experience. Similar to the survey that new Birchbox subscribers take to determine which samples they will receive in the mail, the SoHo store contains iPads and a large touchscreen that patrons use to answer questions about themselves and receive customized product recommendations. Machine learning and artificial intelligence powers these recommendations to create a personalized retail experience for each shopper. Visitors can also create their own subscription box like the one subscribers receive in the mail at the B.Y.O.B., or “Build Your Own Birchbox” area. The brand’s beauty editors offer even more sampling at the Try Bar, a curated counter furnished with testers of trendy new products. A basement-level salon books hair and makeup appointments, as well as stocking a full selection of men’s grooming products from brands featured in the men’s subscription box. Birchbox Soho will also offer cosmetology classes that will be free for subscribers. www.psfk.com/2014/07/artificial-intelligence-powers-online-beauty-retailer-store.html#!bfBqvh
How digital is changing and innovating the retail experience for consumers. E.g. Nordstrom's uses tablets to enhance the shoe buying and checking out process.
Thanks David.
My name is Todd and I’m the COO of Footmarks –a leading beacon platform provider. We were part of RGA first Techstars program earlier this winter. So it’s nice to be back here with David.
David asked me to join today to give you a quick demo of one scenario or approach for using today beacons. I have only minutes I’ll move and talk fast!
Before I get started, let me give you a little context and callout the key things to look for in demo.
Really when you think about beacons, there are categories or ways to activate your solution – active or passive.
Active meaning a scenario where you invite your customer into a conversation or engagement. Deliver greeting, personalized engagements/sequenced story selling, branded story telling all the way down to personalized coupons and conversions.
Implicit with an active engagement is data tracking. The beacon actually creates a new space inside your physical location where you can engage with your customers. But if you decide not to engage, you certainly track and collect all new proximity based data which can help you activate your location and assets.
Coupon apps used by about 25 million Americans each month. (NPD)
It is predicted that the number of U.S. adult smartphone users who also use mobile coupons will jump from 31 million at the end of 2012 to 40.8 million at the end of 2013. (eMarketer)
Mobile coupons are redeemed 10 times as often as traditional coupons. (eMarketer)
90% of retail transactions still happen in the physical world. – so lots of opportunity for engagement here!
You can start to answer questions like:
Who is in my store?
Who is most valuable?
Where should my reps spend their time?
Do my customer need help?
Do I have hot spots or cold spots in my store?
And many many more?
So what I decided to do is show you an actual retail client dashboard because we find it a good starting point for folks to pilot given the fact you don’t have to risk a new customer experience while you ramp on the solution. This is an actual retail implementation for a brand in this room - only we pulled back a ton of data and reskinned to protect the innocent.
From a setup perspective:
I am the shopper, I have our retailer’s app on the phone, I am signed in but it’s not active
I have two beacons that represent two store departments – men’s and women’s.
As I walk into the store, note several things going on at once
Visiting - shows me as visiting – 1
Dwell - See the dwell time ticking up representing the amount of time I’m both in the store and in the department.
You should also notice the capture and bounce rate. Here we capture the store visit but want show if your customer truly spent time or simply left. I set the demo that after 60 seconds in the store, I’m considered captured. Otherwise we report you as bounced. There a ton of more data that can you peel back the bounce rates and understand more.
You’ll also notice that it reports some baseline demo and brand loyalty metrics. If time I’ll share that we’ve spent a lot time integrate with a leading loyalty platform – very powerful.
As I leave the department, you’ll notice that the department time stops and the men’s dwell time starts to tick. Also notice that overall store dwell time keeps progressing. For all this we can total time, average times, median, etc. There’s a ton of flexibility.
Finally you’ll notice the idea of pathways or customer journeys throughout your store. Using this data you can start to understand hot spots, cold spots, where customers need the most help, etc. From there we can create store and customer heat maps which always give rich insights.
If I log out and back in as a male, you can see the entire process start all over again.
If I leave the department, notice we report a bounce.
Even with this dashboard on redux, you can start to answer key questions in real time to help you optimize your resources from customer reps to the actual physical layout.
We like to think this is the first step in activating your space or bringing digital intelligence to your physical space(s).
Notes -
Americans’ time spent with retail and shopping apps grew 12% from Q4 2012 to Q4 2013, up from 6% growth the year before.
69% of consumers would switch brands to earn points, would drive farther and make more individual purchases to accumulate the rewards.
Customers typically spend up to 60% more than average when know about to unlock a loyalty reward.