Retail IT: international ideas

As the great and the good of retail convene in Barcelona this week for World Retail Congress, I thought it was a great opportunity to think about retail technology and innovation from an international perspective.

It is great to see that the UK is holding its own when it comes to the nominations for the Awards to be held at this year’s Congress. And research from Sitemorse on the best retail websites launched to coincide with the event has seen three UK retailers make the top 10 in terms of the usability of their sites.

At the same time, UK retailers must not get complacent, and should continue to look further afield than their direct competitors when it comes to ideas for innovation. So here is one idea for you.

At the start of this week, news came out in America that US grocer Stop & Shop has rolled out handheld scanners for shoppers to use at 250 of its stores. While this isn’t a new idea, what’s different about this deployment is that it delivers personalised offers to shoppers as they move around the store, and is being adopted enthusiastically by shoppers and advertisers.

Modiv Media’s Modiv Shopper system, which is being run on Motorola’s MC17 mobile computers, delivers relevant promotions based on purchase histories from loyalty cards. Nearly one million shopping trips are being completed each month using the system at the grocer’s Giant Food and Stop & Shop stores. The system tracks each shopper around the store and presents coupons and deals as they near relevant products.

Since it began being introduced, towards the end of last year, more than 50 brands have run paid campaigns using the system too.

Modiv Media says that in general more shoppers are making unplanned purchases, and half of those purchase decisions are taken in the isle, so the system is trying to influence these.