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2011.47 | Latest Retail Tech Links

November 23, 2011 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

New-tritional Labeling - A controversial question, but I really admire this effort at re-thinking how  the nutritional value of foods is presented.  This is a tough area to solve, as everyone has different ideas of nutrition and what is good for you.

Savvy is a mobile tool to track prices after your purchase to ensure you take advantage of price guarantees.  Just take a picture of the receipt from a growing list of retailers, and the app takes care of the rest.

Domino’s is letting build their own pizzas as part of an iPad game called Domino’s Pizza Hero.  This is definitely a clever way to get into the hearts and minds of the kids who use their parent’s iPads to play.

AT&T has a new Concept Store in Chicago.

Hertz has new check-in kiosks that provide a video link to remote staff to provide a live link to the check-in.

Check out this Superhydrophobic Coating.  It’s touted as a way of protecting electronics from spills but I’m with the guy who wrote it…this could save my clothes.

dining & qsr, food & drug, general merchandise, retail, travel
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2011.46 | Wired App Guide: Retail Edition

November 21, 2011 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

I finally read the Wired App Guide this weekend.  I highly recommend picking it up if you are interested in mobile apps.  It covers many platforms, and appears to try to stay neutral – iPhone, iPad, Android, WP7 are all represented, but it is iOS heavy. Sorry Blackberry lovers – no mention of Blackberry, though I know at least some of the apps are offered on the Blackberry Market from personal experience.

No matter how much you stay up to date with apps, the app guide is a good read, and there are definitely some useful apps in there, no matter what your personal interests.

Of the 400 apps included, only a  few are retail oriented; 15 by my count.  In fairness, defining retail can be daunting, so I’ve had to use my own reckoning (I’ve counted Netflix and rdio for example – they sell movies and music) and very few are from household “retail” brand names – Amazon, Apple, and Starbucks are the only ones.

Here are the most interesting mobile apps of interest to retailers that made the cut into the app guide:

Kindle – I love Amazon, but Kindle is obviously saving their best efforts for their own devices.  The picture in the app guide is from a Kindle Fire, which is miles ahead of what you get on other devices.  While Apple Amazon and other booksellers  by mandating a cut of in-app sales, the Kindle eBook store accessible via iPad is really an unfortunate user experience.  Kobo’s web store is much easier to navigate and use.  I also think Kobo is doing a much better job in Canada as of late.  Their prices are more reasonable, and the ereader program is comparable to Kindle.

Amazon Mobile – Take the mobile app, scan barcode at store, and get the price for an item from Amazon and add to your cart.  Helpful. Not unique to this app.  Tesco has an app that does the same thing, and Canadian Tire can provide pricing from local store with a barcode scan.  There are many more with notable capabilities – like Meijer’s Findit.

Starbucks – They had to be on there as the pioneer in building a mobile payment system.  The Canadian version is causing me and Canadian users headaches as it seems to be forgetting the login and password.  Forces users to *gasp* pull out their plastic card.  Great app otherwise, and I’m sure that will be fixed.

Apple Store -I’m less keen on the buying capability in the app, but the addition of in store pickup is very handy.  Being able to look up what Apple considers a good aftermarket product also is a useful touch.  More helpful is the ability to book a meeting with a Genius at your local store.  It should be this easy to book appointments with anyone.

Barcode Scanner – It’s an android app.  Not sure why they pushed this barcode scanning price comparison engine.  There have been many others available for years.

Seamless Food Delivery – Network of restaurants to order delivery from your phone.  Great concept.  Not available in Canada, but there are Canadian equivalents for online delivery – no mobile app, but should work on the browser of your mobile.

OpenTable – Reserve tables at your favourite restaurant.  My favourite new features is that you can now save your reservation to your calendar.  A must for obsessive-compulsive types.

Rdio Canada – While it appears to have been around a while, Rdio Canada allows users to play and listen to music in the Netflix model – but with way more content.  Mobile apps are available and it works with airplay.  I’m currently trying it out on a 7 day free trial.  $14.99 per month for unlimited. Great idea for those who don’t have a large music collection already.  Tough break if you are trying to still sell CDs.

Zinio – I don’t buy paper magazines anymore, and this app is the reason.  While there are a few magazines with native iPad apps, many don’t have them.  You can get many of the others here for prices as low as $10 per year.  Immediate downloads on availability.  Very useable reader. Can carry all my magazines with me when I travel.

It’s not terribly surprising that only a few retail brands made this list.  There are thousands of apps, and a top 400 list by necessity will have a lot of things unrelated to a retail experience.  The success of a retail mobile app is not necessarily indicated by being on this list either.

Like any other solution, it’s important to have a benefit to the user and the retailer.  Find a unique need for your clients, and fulfill it.  Many times fulfilling that need will streamline a cost for you.  Do you think it’s more expensive in the long run for Apple Stores to have a web based appointment system interfaced to their mobile app for simple scheduling of technical assistance, or for them just to let people pile into stores at random and get angry when they have to wait for hours to get assistance?

This technology provides a real opportunity to make lives better.  Take the opportunity to help your customers.

dining & qsr, food & drug, general merchandise, retail, travel
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2011.41 | Views of the Future

November 1, 2011 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

Microsoft’s Vision - I love this future looking view of productivity from Microsoft Office.  Everything is squeaky clean, everything works together, and somehow the wifi at the hotel doesn’t require a code and is faster than dial-up.  All joking aside, it’s a really well made video, and provides some great vision into how things could pan out in the future.  The hard part from a retail technology perspective is making all of this work together seamlessly. That, and people are going to have to learn a lot of new touch gestures! (via Gizmodo)

BMW – BMW’s 300 series are going to have a full colour Heads up Display in 2012.  Consider this an alpha release of the cool computer screens on the car windows on the Microsoft offering.   If you think about it, it also fits the vision of having shopping available in cars as you have seen in future posts.  While voice commands are making great leaps through technologies like Siri, the visual plays a role as well.  The challenge here is not overwhelming safety tools with sales messages.

inPulse smartwatch – There are a few smartwatches out there that are starting to make the rounds.  These wearable displays like the inPulse smartwatch give you access to your phone, providing details on your messages, calls, emails, and more.   I’m really not all that interested in the watch itself.  Having a secondary display is clunky and unnecessary for me.  I would just as likely just pull out my phone as have one more screen with me.  What is interesting is that these devices represent the baby steps of moving a mobile device into one that can interact with screens around them.  While AirPlay does this relatively well between Apple devices, if we are going to see that future with all the devices interacting together some serious work needs to be done to get that in place so that iOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows Phone will speak to other Windows, Linux and OSX devices.  Devices like these watches are transitional technologies that will lead the charge in making that happen.

 

dining & qsr, food & drug, general merchandise, retail, travel
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2011.05 | Novel Implementations in Retail

February 4, 2011 by Tim Dickey 2 Comments

A few implementations in consumer facing situations with some unique properties observed in recent news:

  • Royal Bank debuted their first branch with the new branch concept using solutions like Microsoft Surface – for more details on the solution elements and some video check out my prior post.
  • Couche Tard is piloting a bluetooth mobile coupon solution tied to digital signage solutions for Red Bull.  Here’s hoping it doesn’t become mobile spam!
  • Starbucks Canada has placed interactive screens in the front window of one site in both Toronto and Vancouver as part of their Tazo Loose Leaf Tea campaign.  Visit them prior to February 26 to try them out.
  • London Luton Airport in the UK debuted ‘holographic’ hosts to assist airport travellers in navigating the security process.  They are rear-projections of real people onto full size human shaped screens.
  • Walgreens is now providing the capability for customers to renew their prescriptions via their mobile device by taking an image of the barcode on the bottle.
  • Kraft has a new kiosk that they showed off at NRF’s big show in New York last month that recommends recipes based on users’ appearance.   There’s something of the old carnival weight guesser about this one.  It makes you wonder if vegans look a mite greener, perhaps.  Next up, drive through kiosks that guess your order based on your car.
food & drug, general merchandise, retail, travel
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2010.25 | Contactless Transit in NYC | Walmart Loyalty | Mobile Movie Marketing

June 18, 2010 by Tim Dickey 2 Comments

Contactless Transit - While contactless has lots of benefits, it sure seems to have problems with customer usage.  NYC has the contactless credit card option on the turnstiles as part of a 6 month trial, and while the benefits seem obvious, there are few takers according to this NYT video. Why would consumners opt to go to a vending machine, charge a declining balance card, and then use that card to pay for their ride? Consider the benefits to users:

  • One card will do where two were once needed – no need for separate Metro Card
  • No need to recharge a card at a Metrocard Vending Machine = no waiting and reduced time spent on purchase
  • The turnstile opens and closes just as quickly
  • No need for an advance outlay of funds
  • No more lost coins or cash jingling in your pockets – though the cash option may be what drives the recharging of cards depending on your population.

Yet still little usage based on their informal survey in the subway.  Most likely problem: they’ve not been advertising it strongly enough in person as part of this trial.  For self service to succeed someone at the site needs to be there telling New Yorkers why this is a benefit.  Technology isn’t enough on its own.  The general population needs to be shown, shown again, and then shown another time – highlighting the benefits in a brief, clear manner. 

Walmart Loyalty - While a perennial holdout in the many loyalty schemes available here in Canada, Walmart Canada will be offering loyalty points on their new credit card to be released as part of their newly chartered bank.  This should shake things up a bit.

Mobile Movie Marketing - As part of the upcoming release of the Steve Carell motion picture Despicable Me,  the Best Buy Movie Mode mobile app will translate the nonsense jabber of little characters called minions during the end credits of the movie while users are in the theatre.  This idea certainly provides an interesting cross pollination for retailers like Best Buy to the movies, and we can certainly expect them to extend it to other films.  Now we will have public service announcements at the end of the movie to remind us to turn ON our mobile.  Like that was necessary.

food & drug, general merchandise, retail, travel
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2010.21 | Vancouver Retail | Foursquare Offers | Mobile Parking Payment

May 24, 2010 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

This week I was travelling in the greater Vancouver area to visit some clients, and came across some interesting solutions I had not experienced closer to home.

While making a daily pilgramage to Starbucks, I checked into Foursquare and found a little yellow indicator showing that there were offers near my current location.  It turned out that Starbucks has tied their new Frappacino campaign to Foursquare.  If you happen to be the mayor of your local Starbucks, you recieve $1 off any new Frappuccino beverage.  It’s uncertain if this sort of campaign will drive a great deal of traffic, but it’s an interesting idea, and it certainly can’t be costing them much.  It’s also a nice way to reward loyalty.  [Update: I went to Starbucks at home this weekend where I am the mayor, the offer says congratulations for unlocking the offer and it's shown in colour]

The parking meter situation also presented a solution that was new to me.  One of the problems I encounter periodically is the older cash only situation.  From time to time there is a parking lot that does not accept debit or credit, and I personally complete most transactions in that manner, as I don’t carry cash.  This turns into an inconvenience I would rather avoid.  While in Toronto we have plenty of meters that leverage a ticket station, and I know that there have been experiments with contactless payment, Vancouver had a relatively low tech way of getting the payment completed.   Parkers call a number and enter the meter number and their account connected to their license plate is charged.  I’m sure there are lots of solutions like this out there, I know I’ve seen it in some parking lots, for example, but I’d never seen city meters numbered before.  It certainly made it easier for me to make my meeting on time and helped me avoid a ticket.  Not jingling while you walk was just a bonus!

food & drug, retail, social networking, travel
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2009.47 | Paper Free Offers Please

November 19, 2009 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

Given the state of the global economy, special offers have become the new normal in retail.  Retailers are increasingly able to offer relevant offers on products and services desired by individual consumers.  Consumers who are loyal in these fickle times are rewarded with great deals. 

A technology decision such as requiring a barcoded coupon can have a heavy influence on the closure of a sale.  If a physical coupon is required and forgotten, there can be disasterous concequences.  The consumer may make a special trip to a location, spend sigificant time and energy to fill a basket, and then discover that the offer can not be redeemed. 

The end result is an abandoned basket, at best.  At worst, a customer will feel cheated by the retailer for forgetting a slip of paper.  This sort of small annoyance finds its way to places like Consumerist, or onto Twitter.  While these small annoyances were not worth addressing in the past - with no facility for consumers to vent such a small issue, these items could be ignored.  These new media provide instant response, and the potential for massive backlashes never before possible.

The opportunity to bring a consumer closer to a retailer – to make them more loyal – has been transformed into a pain point for the consumer.  And why the pain point?  Why is it necessary that we all kill trees and feed toner onto paper so that a barcode can be scanned?   The reasons are myriad, and include:

  • Limiting the offer - Perhaps retailers don’t want to provide the offer to the general population, but to a select audience.  Perhaps they are limiting the stock for a BOGO or free item.  While this is sometimes the case, many offers generally encourage you to send them to friends and family and use them over and over again. 
  • Sweethearting – Retailers want to reign in associates who give discounts to people on their whim – they could give it to everyone.  Using a barcode provides an audit trail with the paper coupon and the scanning requirement that will minimize the impact of a dishonest cashier providing discounts to unqualified individuals.
  • Tracking - Any campaign requires measurement, and some campaigns may want to track where the consumer found the offer, so they can understand their multi-channel mix.  There may be different barcodes for e-mail, flyers, newspaper ads, for whatever medium was used to validate the offer source.

There has to be some way to meet these very reasonable retailer needs in some manner without the handicap of a paper coupon – a 19th century innovation.  Unfortunately, barcodes can’t be scanned directly from most mobile devices, so this problem may take some time to be resolved with technology.  While there are some amazing opportunities using 2d barcodes or coupon apps to bridge this divide that are wholeheartedly encouraged, an interim measure that works for all consumers – not just mobile users – is key to avoid the bad press on line that can sink brand capital – particularly in the online world where bad press spreads so quickly.

As always the best route is to make the technology as invisible to the consumer as possible.  Why not make the unique barcode something that can be entered manually if the client reads it off their device to the cashier?  If there are concerns about limiting or sweethearting, why not have a code that the cashiers can enter manually if a customer mentions the offer, and a different code if it is scanned?  If the coupon is fundamentally required, offer a lesser discount without it. 

No matter the answer, it’s important to consider the desired end state, and not get caught in technology for it’s own sake – be it a barcode or a mobile device.  The solution has to be simple for the consumer.

dining & qsr, food & drug, general merchandise, retail, travel
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2009.44 | e-Payments in Canada

November 1, 2009 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

The controversy around Visa debit in Canada continues.  Merchants say the new negative option process is unfair.  Visa says that the current Interac ‘monopoly’ stifles innovation.   The Retail Council of Canada says fees will go up.  

It’s hard to say who is right in this battle, but they both assume that Interac will not change itself in any way to deal with the entrance of Visa to the market, which is not likely the case.  Retailers and consumers alike can expect increasing complexity in the electronic payments area.  As a myriad of services come available, the current simplicity of debit and credit in Canada becomes increasingly complex with new players as well as the interfaces – tapping, dipping, and using debit online (which you can do now, by the way, contrary to Visa’s Mike Bradley’s comments).    It is now possible to pay with mobile numbers online as well, via Zong and Obopay.  More options will come as other posts have indicated. 

While the end game is hard to see at present, the organizations that can bring value to clients for a reasonable fee stand to gain a great deal given the size of the electronic payments market.  The challenge is that payment processors and banks hold the keys to the kingdom at present and will demand a piece of any fee charged – directly or indirectly.  This will restrict new players unless they can find a way to get around these behemoths, as consumers and retailers alike will resist additional fees without some tangible benefit.  Unless there is a real game changer, the most likely future scenario is a plethora of new players with niche solutions chipping away at the current players with small incremental gains.

dining & qsr, food & drug, general merchandise, retail, travel
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2009.42 | Squareup = Squirrel Payment Plan?

October 18, 2009 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

Some time ago there was word that Jack Dorsey, one of the minds behind Blogger and Twitter was working on a consumer payment system for mobile phones codenamed Squirrel.  More details have surfaced (allegedly)  on his plans: (via)

  • the service will be called squareup.com.
  • it uses a hardware dongle that attaches through the headphone jack of the phone
  • signatures are used on the touchscreen for security validation

It’s a great attempt, and those involved should be lauded for trying to push the industry closer to the dream of an electronic wallet.

Here are some concerns with this sort of implementation – if it’s actually real:

  • hardware - Having one more piece of hardware to carry around is likely to push this service in the wrong direction.  It’s hard enough to remember headphones, bluetooth accessories and your phone, let alone having another 1/2 inch square piece of plastic in your pocket.
  • complexity - this implementation seems to require interaction between the consumer, the POS and their phone.  The process appears to be:  user puts dongle on phone, says they want to pay with mobile, clerk hits button for tender option, customer waits for amount to show on screen, takes time to sign his signature, hit go, clerk waits for approval and accepts.  On first blush this is clumsy and if there are multiple steps errors will be made, and consumers and clerks will get frustrated as it takes too long.  As mentioned before, payments of any sort have to be dead simple for them to be successful – particularly in front of the audience of the rest of the people in a queue.
  • signature validation - signatures cannot be seen by the clerk, and there is a potential for chargebacks as clients say they didn’t sign for it
  • EMV - there is no integration with EMV mentioned – not a problem in US – yet – but it is a problem for the rest of the world
  • security - it remains to be seen what stops others from using someone elses stolen phone to access all cards, though there are probably pins involved.  If there are pins, its one more step for consumers to pay.
  • transaction time - how long does it take for data to be shuffled back and forth – if the payment time isn’t similar to a current electronic payment, it will frustrate users and store staff.

The good news is that this system may get around the prohibitive cost issue of the electronic wallet, with mobile carriers, payment processors, and other parties crowding the payment percentage cut off the top of the payment.  If squareup is the sole organization you deal with and they work through the whole payment process, it could remove that major roadblock to the electronic wallet.  This is probably not the end product, so let’s hope they work through the items above and pave the way to the electronic wallet!

dining & qsr, food & drug, general merchandise, retail, social networking, travel
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2009.40 | Service Options

October 1, 2009 by Tim Dickey 0 Comments

Providing a new service option to consumers necessitates giving them an advantage by using it; whether the advantage is convenience, speed of service, access to special percs or many others.  If there is no benefit for the consumer, there is no incentive for them to leverage a different service option.  Any well run consumer facing organization will seek out opportunities to provide customer benefits to differentiate their business and increase the top line, while leveraging cost streamlining benefits to improve their bottom line.
 
Here are a few positive examples observed over the past week:
 
Hertz – I returned my rental car to the Vancouver Airport very early in the morning and had to drop my keys in the slot.  A sign on the box indicated that rental receipts are available for download on their website within hours.  Based on entering a drivers license or credit card number, the Hertz site provides all receipts over the past 6 months, so I was able to pull all I the statements I needed electronically to complete my travel expenses.  Benefit to the consumer?  Instant gratification, a paperless transaction, no agent to call to request the receipt, and increased convenience.  It also takes effort away from Hertz agents, reducing cost, and making staff available to people that require live assistance.  The consumer gets convenience and improved customer service, and the consumer facing organization can leverage cost savings.
 
Starbucks – I have been looking forward to this sort of application as the future of retail for some time, and it appears that the future is almost now!  mFoundry is working with Starbucks on a pilot that will allow mobile based payments via 2d barcodes as well as balance checking and other information for Starbucks card holders.  Once again, consumer and retailer obtain benefits from this solution.  The consumer has potential for a simplified transaction flow, shorter queues, faster service, and a novelty factor that suits a segment of the Starbucks clientele.  Starbucks increases throughput with reduced order and tender time, provides a useful and simple customer service alternative, and aligns themselves more closely with their customers by establishing a hold on one of the most important access points - their customers’ mobile device.
 
5494_128773267062_106593592062_3004057_6437802_nCoca-Cola – I picked up the most recent Fast Company magazine, and read the lead article on Coca-Cola’s David Butler last week. A key component of the article concerns the new Coca-Cola Freestyle soda fountain.   In contrast to traditional self service soda fountains located in Quick Service restaurants, the new footprint boasts a digital LCD interface and technology that shrinks the required raw materials allowing users to access over 100 beverage choices instead of the 6 or 8 generally available today.   The benefit to the consumer in this case is the vastly expanded product selection.  The retailer (and manufacturer) benefit is providing more product selection in the same store footprint, and the capability of leveraging the electronic brain of the soda fountain to ascertain popularity of the beverage options – providing useful and as yet unmined sources of data about consumer preferences in this segment.
dining & qsr, food & drug, retail, travel
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