10 Big Tech Ideas For Retailers
Mobile and social lead the list of hot tech trends for retailers, but they had company at the National Retail Federation's Big Show 2012. Here's a basket full of ideas to check out.
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10 Technologies And Tips For Retailers
All things mobile and social took center stage at the National Retail Federation's Big Show 2012. Retailers already live in a multichannel world--counting retail stores, Web sites, email campaigns, contact centers, kiosks, catalogs, and other methods to reach customers. But social commerce and mobile commerce are remaking the way consumers shop. "It's the biggest change in shopping since e-commerce," according to retail trendwatcher Nita Rollins of Resource Interactive.
The Big Show "Engage & Evolve" theme encourages retailers to meet customers on Facebook and Twitter as well as through mobile apps that add brand value and bring shoppers back--no matter where they may be. An IBM study shows that consumers are only too willing to share personal details such as their media consumption, age, race, gender, income, name, address, and lifestyle details (such as hobbies and other interests) with retailers that they trust--so long as it means they'll get relevant offers through their preferred channel of communications.
Like many retailers, American Eagle Outfitters is taking advantage of the newest channels, promoting its brand across social networks and delivering personalized offers, loyalty program information, product information, and commerce capabilities through mobile apps. Ice.com tries to make its social experience fun and interactive with polls and games that unlock discounts and special offers. Ice also tries to take advantage of Facebook's Edge Rank algorithm, which favors content the sparks likes and interaction. "If your comments and posts on Facebook don't elicit comment and action, then you're wasting your time," advises Pinny Gniwisch of Ice.com.
Augmented reality is another emerging tech theme in retail. One of the most visible examples at the Big Show is Swivel's Microsoft-Kinect-enabled virtual fitting room, which lets customers try on clothes from a virtual clothing rack. Don't have Xbox and Kinect? There's a Web cam version as well. Among other technologies seen at the Big Show, Digiops offers a video analytics system that counts people, conversion rates, and even security risks, helping retailers track store traffic and optimize every square foot.
For the back office, SAS offers predictive-analytics-driven price and promotion optimization software, as well as assortment planning and financial planning apps that take the guesswork out of crucial decisions. And to connect the back office with the retail floor, Epicor has introduced a "Clienteling" tablet app that serves up customer info from the CRM system to salespeople, to help them better cater to each customer's preferences. Browse these tips and tools for retailers and then cash in on the advice and technology advantage.
American Eagle Outfitters Gets Social
Clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters is riding the social and mobile commerce waves. On the social front, American Eagle is active on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Shopkick, Google Places, Pose, SCVNGR, and other sites. An American Eagle "Best Shot" contest in 2011 generated 80,000 photo downloads and 500,000 votes on social networks within just four weeks.
American Eagle Goes Mobile
Released late last year, American Eagle's latest mobile app hits the usual checklist of features. It's integrated with the loyalty program, so customers can look up their points. It displays the latest catalog of merchandise. It lets customers scan barcodes to add those items to their wish list. It also delivers special offers and promotions, and is commerce enabled, so customers can buy from their phone. Oh, and it also lets customers upload pictures to Facebook so friends can weigh in on the new threads.
IBM Says Customers Are Ready To Share
A survey of 28,500 consumers by IBM finds that consumers are more than willing to share with retailers through social networks. If they're sure they'll get a better, more personalized shopping experience, consumers will tell all about their media consumption (75%); age, race, gender, and income (73%); name and address (61%); and lifestyle details such as hobbies and other interests (59%). Consumers tell IBM they want to receive more communications--not fewer--from retailers if they can be delivered through their preferred media channel in a relevant way.
Ice.com Engages The Consumer
Online jewelry retailer Ice.com takes advantage of social media to engage and delight its customers. It serves up games and puzzles that unlock URLs for discount offers, and it conducts monthly "What's Your Style" polls. The items that get the most votes go on sale at the end of each month.
Virtual Shopping: The Next Big Trend
Augmented reality (or virtual shopping) is the coming rage in retail (maybe). Here a game (and apparently gender-confused) demonstrator tries on a wedding dress using Swivel's 3-D Virtual Dressing Room. In this case it's powered by Microsoft Kinect, which lets the demonstrator grab clothes off the virtual rack and reach out and add accessories. Swivel's technology also works with a consumer's Web cam if they don't have Microsoft's xbox and Kinect.
Guitar Center Says MultiChannel Marketing Is Not Enough
Guitar Center was doing all the right things: working on search engine optimization, linking store and warehouse inventories to give online customers an integrated shopping basket, and more. But the chain was still losing market share to price-chopping online-only retailers.
Guitar Center's response? Hyper localization, with a templated website that lets managers and salespeople within each store share profiles, pictures, and promotions highlighting the local store, employee expertise, local artists, and news about the local music scene.
Individual stores also post pictures, prices and descriptions of used merchandise available exclusively at that store. The site lets customers browse profiles and contact local employees who specialize in serving guitarists, drummers, keyboardists, home-studio geeks, and so on.
Guitar Center used an iPad contest to encourage employees to share pictures and profiles, and 4,000 were posted within weeks. The effort put a human face on a national chain, highlighting local expertise that stores without retail employees can't offer. The next step? Integrating profiles with Facebook and other social networks.
SAS Predicts Best Prices And Promotions
SAS announced at NRF that its Price Optimization and SAS Promotion Optimization apps have joined SAS Markdown Optimization on the SAS High-Performance Computing platform. Running on EMC or Teradata platforms, this combination lets retailers quickly mine big data to nimbly set, adjust, and analyze prices at the SKU-store level to maximize sell-through and revenue. SAS also highlights SAS Retail Planning, including predictive Retail Assortment Planning and Retail Financial Planning apps. Making decisions based on fact is better than guessing if you want to optimize price and size assortment planning and space usage.
Epicor Clienteling App Links Salespeople To CRM
Epicor Retail Clienteling, from Epicor Software, is a tablet app optimized for the Apple iPad and designed to give salespeople customer insight--including details about shopping and service history--right out of Epicor's CRM application database. As shown above, the app displays pictures of what a particular customer has purchased in the past, so salespeople will instantly know what that customer buys and his or her style and color preferences (in the example of clothing). This data would normally be trapped in a back-office CRM interface, but now it's available as a sales tool. Other app screens show how many dollars that customer has spent in the recent past compared to prior years.
Maximize Your Facebook Edge Rank
Facebook has algorithms just like Google has algorithms, and the key one for Facebook is Edge Rank. "If your comments and posts on Facebook don't elicit comment and actions, then you're wasting your time," advises Pinny Gniwisch of Ice.com. "A story in your feed that has tons of comments will rise up above everything else in people's streams." When you post, make sure it's compelling content that people want to share.
Apply Analytics To Your Store Traffic Patterns
Want to know more about the traffic outside your store, coming in the door, browsing, and converting? Digiop offers video analytics systems that track and count people, where they're browsing, how well they're converting, where they're waiting for service, where they're loitering, and even where they're shoplifting. With as few as two cameras placed in strategic locations, Digiop says it can heat map and traffic-analyze your store. It also integrates with cash drawers and point-of-sale systems to give precise insight into conversion rates, the effectiveness of merchandising and promotion plans, and more.
Apply Analytics To Your Store Traffic Patterns
Want to know more about the traffic outside your store, coming in the door, browsing, and converting? Digiop offers video analytics systems that track and count people, where they're browsing, how well they're converting, where they're waiting for service, where they're loitering, and even where they're shoplifting. With as few as two cameras placed in strategic locations, Digiop says it can heat map and traffic-analyze your store. It also integrates with cash drawers and point-of-sale systems to give precise insight into conversion rates, the effectiveness of merchandising and promotion plans, and more.
10 Technologies And Tips For Retailers
All things mobile and social took center stage at the National Retail Federation's Big Show 2012. Retailers already live in a multichannel world--counting retail stores, Web sites, email campaigns, contact centers, kiosks, catalogs, and other methods to reach customers. But social commerce and mobile commerce are remaking the way consumers shop. "It's the biggest change in shopping since e-commerce," according to retail trendwatcher Nita Rollins of Resource Interactive.
The Big Show "Engage & Evolve" theme encourages retailers to meet customers on Facebook and Twitter as well as through mobile apps that add brand value and bring shoppers back--no matter where they may be. An IBM study shows that consumers are only too willing to share personal details such as their media consumption, age, race, gender, income, name, address, and lifestyle details (such as hobbies and other interests) with retailers that they trust--so long as it means they'll get relevant offers through their preferred channel of communications.
Like many retailers, American Eagle Outfitters is taking advantage of the newest channels, promoting its brand across social networks and delivering personalized offers, loyalty program information, product information, and commerce capabilities through mobile apps. Ice.com tries to make its social experience fun and interactive with polls and games that unlock discounts and special offers. Ice also tries to take advantage of Facebook's Edge Rank algorithm, which favors content the sparks likes and interaction. "If your comments and posts on Facebook don't elicit comment and action, then you're wasting your time," advises Pinny Gniwisch of Ice.com.
Augmented reality is another emerging tech theme in retail. One of the most visible examples at the Big Show is Swivel's Microsoft-Kinect-enabled virtual fitting room, which lets customers try on clothes from a virtual clothing rack. Don't have Xbox and Kinect? There's a Web cam version as well. Among other technologies seen at the Big Show, Digiops offers a video analytics system that counts people, conversion rates, and even security risks, helping retailers track store traffic and optimize every square foot.
For the back office, SAS offers predictive-analytics-driven price and promotion optimization software, as well as assortment planning and financial planning apps that take the guesswork out of crucial decisions. And to connect the back office with the retail floor, Epicor has introduced a "Clienteling" tablet app that serves up customer info from the CRM system to salespeople, to help them better cater to each customer's preferences. Browse these tips and tools for retailers and then cash in on the advice and technology advantage.
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