Congrats to Jerry Bell and the crew at Atlanta’s ZeeWise on the release of CARS Premier Edition.
From the release: ”CARS Premier Edition (CARS PE) is a Web-based software tool designed for use with Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks® to provide franchisors with insight into their franchisees, or “Zees”, financial and operational performance.
ZeeWise is an Atlanta-based technology company providing innovative business intelligence solutions to franchise organizations.
At the show, Intel and Microsoft announced a new digital display device. You can read the news release here, but a video may be more helpful.
While I’ll admit this ranked higher because of it’s high-tech nature as opposed to measurable business benefit, it really is a good representation of the things that are starting to happen in digital signage. At some point digital signage, augmented reality and customer loyalty will start to come together. This represents a unique look at interactive technologies that will start to differentiate the experience for the customer in-store/restaurant.
I’ll admit to being somewhat enamored with augmented reality technologies and their potential impact on the retail customer experience. Not only does this potentially impact the in-store customer experience, but I think it’s a powerful way to extend the real shopping experience into virtually unlimited points of distribution. Fashionista by Rich Relevance, is a great example of this.
I think the impact for retailers down the road gets interesting. At what point does the in-home shopping experience come close to the in-store shopping experience? Is there a point where customers will gravitate more to these virtual experiences? It’s likely a ways out, but I think it puts additional pressure on bricks and mortar retailers to continue to innovate the experience in-store/restaurant, etc.
I’ve also recently written a post on this topic if you are interested in more detail.
Number 3 on the list is the IBM/Cisco Mobile Concierge. This was a concept demonstration of how the in-store shopping experience could be differentiated by leveraging the customers own mobile device.
One thing I learned was that Cisco wireless routers could determine the customers in-store location down to the meter. This can enable shelf or “micro-location” based services. Using customer location and other data (e.g., loyalty, purchase history), the retailer can make offers available that are highly relevant at that moment and at that shelf.
Items scanned by the customer could provide additional information. There are plenty of services that do this today, but if the retailer is offering this through their own app, there is a greater ability to deliver desired messaging along with reviews and other information. If an item is not in stock, or the customer simply wants it delivered to their home, this can be seamlessly done from their phone.
Retailers could give customers the ability to find items in-store and, using the in-store location capability, virtually walk the customer to the product. Additionally, rather than finding the nearest customer service phone, the customer could simply press a button on their in-store app and get help immediately.
Finally, with current smartphone scanning technology (like RedLaser), there is no need for the price-checker. You can put it in the hands of the customer.
I’m sure there are any number of new services that will be added in the future. I think the key is for retailers to start thinking about how to leverage the customers own device to provide services which differentiate the in-store experience.
Photo by nedrichards
The Modiv Media Shopper offers value to both the customer and the retailer. As you will see below, customers can scan products as they shop, see their running total, and are made aware of deals based on their location in the store (and seemingly other criteria). Checkout is done simply by handing over the scanner (and I would think at least a visual check by the cashier).
The future of in-store technology is increasingly in the hands of the consumer. We’ve gone from cashier-run checkout to self-checkout, to now checkout with a store-provided mobile device. In the near future, we will see self checkout with the customers own device along with relevant promotions and services that you can only get on proprietary devices today. These applications will be powered by software like RedLaser running on the customers smartphone.
In-store mobile is just getting started. Innovative retailers will use it to gain preference, differentiation and competitive advantage.
I wasn’t able to find anything on the web about this, so I’m not sure how real it was, but IBM was showing a demonstration of Social Media Data Mining. The concept was simply to take social media, forum, message board, and other data aggregate it for analysis, sentiment, etc.
The aggregation of social media data for a retailer to monitor their brand will be ’standard equipment’ for large chains in 5 years. Companies like Radian6, Scout Labs and Visible Technologies are leading the way.
Next on the list is the Mac POS. The one I spent more time with was LightSpeed (there was another called Checkout). Here’s a video. The iTunes-like UI is attractive and intuitive which will be important for the next generation of retail employees. A more intuitive UI can also help new employees get productive faster and with high turnover rates in retail, this can mean a real return.
Because of the price point of Mac hardware and the dearth of peripherals, I don’t see wide-spread adoption. I can however see a great fit in certain high-end or high-tech retail environments.
Transaction Tree enables retailers to provide electronic receipts to their customers. They do this by collecting emails at the POS, combining them with the actual transaction data and enabling retailers to deliver customized emails with both the receipt data and relevant marketing.
Digital Receipt History
In 2000, NCR led creation of the Digital Receipt alliance. Participating companies were Visa, Office Depot, America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.’s VeriFone division. The alliance proposed a standard for digital receipts to the National Retail Federation’s technology standards body which now maintains this standard.
So, companies have been working in this space for nearly a decade. There have been several attempts to approach this more from the consumer-side of the equation – attempting to create demand for a customer ‘receipt repository’ of sorts. The latest entrant is Intuit QuickReceipts. Transaction Tree has instead focused on providing technology which captures customer email and transaction data to facilitate emailing of the receipt along with relevant marketing messages.
What’s Changed
A few things are different now and may provide the catalyst for companies like Transaction Tree:
Risks
Collecting receipt information is not a difficult technical problem. I know of at least one POS company that has an add-on module allowing for email receipts. I believe Epicor announced something at NRF as well. If retailers want it, POS companies will be forced to offer it.
The question is, will POS companies and retailers do this themselves as opposed to leveraging a company like Transaction Tree? Perhaps, but the value to retailers is less in the data collection and more in how that data enables retailers to more effectively reach their customers. This is not in the core skill set of most POS providers.
Their main competitors are AfterBot, Third Solutions and AllEtronic. Afterbot was the only other one I saw at NRF.
Is the time right for digital receipts? I think you will see retailers increasingly making this option available to their customers. Will Transaction Tree be a dominant player? It’s too early to tell, but if they add value beyond simply email and transaction capture, then they have a shot.
Full Disclosure: While I have no financial interest, I have informally advised Transaction Tree and have referred them to retailers looking for a solution like theirs.
Microsoft Surface has been around for about two years, but this was the first time I’d seen good applications to retail and the customer experience.
Here’s a demo from IdentityMine:
And here’s another by CSG
Interesting way to engage the consumer.
FaceCash is another take on the digital wallet. From their handout at the show,
“Use FaceCash and the Thinklink network to pay for goods and services at participating merchant stores – all with your iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry or Android phone. Everything about good old plastic, from rewards to statements, is even better with FaceCash. It’s easy, and it will save you time and money whether you are buying or selling. “
Here’s how it works (from their brochure at the show):
The team at NRF told me that unlike Square (which also provides a card swipe device for the iPhone ) FaceCash was meant to be like ‘paypal’ for retailers and leverages scanners instead of a proprietary device.
The mobile wallet is something of a holy grail being pursued by mammoth, global companies (e.g., Qualcomm ). It’s coming, but I don’t think companies like FaceCash will be able to get the critical mass required. So, while I don’t think FaceCash is the next big thing, it’s a good illustration of where we are heading. For independent business owners FaceCash, Square, Mophie and perhaps Apple itself, all signal a fairly significant change in the cost of being able to accept credit cards. There will be impact to the incumbent hardware providers in this space as well as the large payment providers – to the benefit of retailers large and small.
Unfortunately, I think the FaceCash guys have a very tough road ahead up against better capitalized, larger competition, but the concept itself is a good example of where things are heading.
Photo credit: iPhone Mobile Payment 100 Euro by Monty Metzger
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