Rebecca Thomson reports on how retailers are adapting to technological innovation and keeping a keen eye out for emerging cutting-edge IT.
Retail gets its fair share of technology-related hype, and it’s probably wise to cultivate a healthy level of cynicism when it comes to some IT-related marketing. But there’s plenty of genuine innovation that deserves notice. The technology world moves so fast, keeping abreast of developments is necessary for any retailer. While many technologies aren’t new – some have been around for many years – their impact on the retail industry is only now starting to occur.
Augmented reality
It’s been a buzzword for a while, but this year retailers are starting to demonstrate what it can do for them.
Working with Kishino, Tesco allows its customers to take a closer look at certain products. Tesco.com head of research and development Nick Lansley says on his blog: “The first thing I thought of when I saw augmented reality in action was to consider how it might help customers visualise our products better.”
So toy construction kits can be seen in their fully formed glory, and 3D images of TV sets can be turned around to see where plug sockets are. The technology used online or in-store relies on image ‘triggers’ – a toy box can be held up to a webcam, for instance, and the augmented image of the completed product appears on the screen.
Electronic shelf-edge labelling
With prices in retail frequently fluctuating, constant price changes cost retailers money. It takes staff time, and costs businesses cash, to change paper tickets. For the grocers at least, the case could be made for electronic price tags and Waitrose is one considering it.
Price updates become immediate, and it also makes it easier to implement more complex pricing strategies that encompass differences between consumers shopping in different areas or at different times of day.
Plus, it makes promotions quicker and easier to roll out.
Social media analytics
Everyone has Twitter and Facebook accounts, but few are milking social networks for all they’re worth. Rather than just another way to communicate, or even another way to sell, social media can spawn interesting insights if the data is crunched correctly.
Software supplier Autonomy points to train company Eurostar, which trawls social networks for information on train service problems, which customers often tweet about as they happen. Staff can be automatically updated on problems they don’t know about, solve any issues, and communicate with customers about the causes of delays. Longer-term trends – such as problems in a particular area – can also be spotted.
Analytics company SAS says there is scope for social media to be used as a central part of decision making, giving a steer on everything from merchandising to products to service.
Facial recognition
Car giant Citroën has used facial recognition technology to chart who was interested in its pop-up stand in Westfield Stratford shopping centre.
The software helped it ascertain the general age of the passers-by who looked at the pop-up, and how long for. Citroën wanted to target younger shoppers and the technology helped it measure the marketing’s success.
Design consultancy the Green Room, which worked with Citroën on the project, says facial recognition could be used to measure the success of all kinds of in-store marketing and could help identify certain customers in-store if they agree to have their face registered.
Contactless payments
Near-field-communication (NFC) technology is big in Japan and has been discussed here for years, but with Waitrose announcing the first full-scale retail roll-out it is set to start having more of an impact on the industry.
The £15 transaction limit is a barrier for many retailers, and there are also some issues over the plethora of different suppliers queuing up to provide the service – everyone from Barclaycard to Google is at it, but the trouble is retailers don’t want to have to invest in a different device for each one, or choose between them. As John Lewis IT director Paul Coby says: “We’re looking at it, but the trick here is to be a fast follower. Every supplier wants to occupy this space, but we don’t want to invest in the beta version of the hardware.”
New databases
Even retailers without the ability to analyse their data have to store it and retailers may increasingly need to use different forms of storage. Fiachra Woodman, chief information officer at loyalty scheme Nectar, says new forms of unstructured data and non-transactional data and ever-bigger volumes of it mean new types of databases will be needed. “We are looking at different types of databases that better accommodate different types of data,” he says.
While these technologies won’t be suited to all, they give a taste of how fast things move in this industry.
As ever, it is best to keep an open mind and an ability to experiment – this year, perhaps more than ever.
Interactive mirrors
Tesco and John Lewis are both trying out interactive mirrors, which use gesture-based digital signage to allow customers to stand in front of them and try on virtual clothes. Both are working with Cisco, which says the mirrors can act both as a footfall driver and as a relief on changing room queues. While it is not the same as trying on real clothes because it is not possible to see how the garments will fit, Cisco says there are myriad advantages. The mirrors allow shoppers to try on lots of things quickly and chose different garments that go well together. It says that older shoppers are particularly fond of them because it helps them avoid the changing room.
Image recognition
This is an integral part of the augmented reality experience – which uses image recognition technology to prompt on-screen 3D images – but it can be used for other things too. Image recognition technology is what Net-a-Porter uses in its pop-up window shops, where phones can be pointed at images of clothes, allowing the technology to recognise them and take users to the online shop.
Using suppliers such as Net-a-Porter and Debenham’s partner Aurasma and Blippar, which worked on Tesco’s Big Price Drop campaign, retailers can take users to extras such as a store locator, more marketing content or an online shop if they point their phone at an image.
Connected TV
Another technology set to grow this year is internet-connected TV. Services such as the BBC’s iPlayer give some indication of how this will change the way viewers watch TV – essentially, it will be possible to watch what they like, when they like. That spells bad news for retailers that rely on TV adverts to get their message out, as it’s likely to get easier to fast forward through them or skip them out completely.
Marks & Spencer is one of the first to respond to this, working with video agency Adjust Your Set to try out a new app on Samsung’s connected TV. Viewers download the app much as they would on a mobile phone, and get access to all of M&S’s ads and video content.
Adjust Your Set says that there are ecommerce possibilities because the products featured on the channels have QR codes on them, so mobile phones and tablets can recognise them and take the viewer to the online shop. What is crucial is to follow M&S’s lead and start experimenting – few know the answer to this conundrum yet.
1 Reader's comment