Interactive Retail

Sephora is a beauty-retail store created in 1970 that now has about 1,900 stores in 29 countries and has a force to be reckoned with social media following. Their instagram currently has 2.3 million followers and its expected to grow heavily over the next two weekends at Coachella Music Festival.

sephora is like other retailers that are setting up shop for the long weekend in Indio, but they’ll be creating an oasis music fans and already loyal customers will never forget. 

Sephora has created an air-conditioned beauty pop-up patio, that’ll help keep music goers looking their best throughout the festival. Sephora is offering a beauty bar full of sephora brand make up, face and body art, metallic temporary tattoos, free face masks, hair styling, and many more free beauty needs the fans will be excited to to get their hands on. 

Last week I walked around the Carytown shopping center in Richmond, VA and conducted a survey of 50 people on their shopping habits and what they thought of interactive retail. 

    Surprisingly most people said they shopped in-store, even though online shopping sales are in the billions. IBM had recorded after Thanksgiving that "Cyber Monday online sales were up 31.5 percent over Black Friday" sales in 2013 and "online sales grew by 20.6 percent over 2012." An interesting enough, half of the people I surveyed that day, didn't have shopping bags with them. 

    An overwhelming majority of the survey's favorite stores were also based off of the merchandise quality rather than reviews, coupons, or customer service, but money played the biggest role in whether or not they'd actually shop. When I began asking about interactive retail most had split opinions on whether or not they'd want to use it, but over all they liked the idea of incentives being sent to their smart phones while they walk around shopping centers or malls. Out of the fifty people surveyed most people considered themselves tech-friendly and the few that didn't were in the Baby Boomer category.

I sat down at Cary Town Bistro with Need Supply Co.’s Copywriter Jason Donahoe to discuss where he saw the combination of technology and retail in the future. We began the interview with first discussing new technology such as Bluetooth iBeacon and how it’s used to target consumers walking around a retail space.

  Jason – The idea sounds cool, but it also seems like a replacement for good ‘ol fashion clienteling. It seems like it’s taking the place of a person who could be explaining and guiding (the consumer) throughout the store.

  I went on to play devils advocate and ask if that’s the next step to replacing inadequate sales associates. Although, there’s always going to be a need for someone to be one the sales floor, do you think it’s a way to enhance the brand another way?

  Jason – I agree, personalization is everything right now, if you can put the right item or offer in front of the right people you’re going to make a sale.

   I then began to ask Jason if he noticed customers using Need as a “showroom” to find products for a cheaper price online.

  Jason - Yes, absolutely.

  Does Need specifically do anything to fight against this?

Jason – We try to keep the right products and price points on the floor for our Richmond customer so they can get what they want when they come in. We even at one point had certain products grouped together by particular tastes and styles of brands to see if that would drive sales but that ended up not being what we ultimately stuck to. I think it’s that same idea of putting the right item with the perfect price in front of the right customer is key.

  So like iBeacon which drives you to particular items by your phone if you choose to use the app, Burberry and other retail stores are using interactive mirrors to tell their brands story. For example, Burberry has sensors that’ll trigger a mirror nearby to show the history and craftsmen ship that went into making that particular product that was touched.

  Jason – Yeah, the more information is always good. But people are always going to like getting an opinion from someone on the store staff on how their butt looks in jeans haha.

  Well talking about jeans, Seven for all Mankind and other retails are adding body scanners to their locations for those of us that don’t want to go through the hassle of trying things on. The machine simply scans you and prints out a personalized shopping list of the merchandise in the store.

  Jason – Um, I think it makes sense because of their price point. Personally I have to know and try them on before I buy them. I don’t have a ton of disposable income and I wouldn’t want to spend that much to realize I bought the wrong pair. It seems more like a luxury.

  Do you not see it as a time saver?

  Jason – Yeah, I think anything that gets it right the first time, is good. I think all these things seem like useful tools to help narrowing down from all the choices you have. I remember there’s a TEDTalk about jeans. On how when there’s too many choices or different pairs of Levi jeans, your more likely to not buy any of them. Overwhelmed by choice. Kind of like the Netflix setback of people spending two hours browsing Netflix’s, unable to decide what they want to watch. So anything that helps you get what you want is great for the consumer.

  Lastly, before I let Jason, return back to work. I asked what he thought of digital wallets. Having our phones be our means of paying or credit cards with identification chips rather than magnetic strips. Europe has already transferred over to the identification chips as a way to prevent theft.

  Jason – Yeah, I’ve actually seen this new card that can hold multiple credit cards and if it’s more than a couple feet away from your phone it’ll buzz you.

  That seems like the perfect card for me. No more leaving it places...

  Jason – Exactly, it links with your phone, can store all your cards, and you can choose what card to pay with when purchasing something from your phone.

  So I can safely assume you see this becoming the future?

  Jason – Oh yeah, I would definitely be into getting one. I’m just a little hesitant with the Bluetooth app because when I shop I’m in and out.

  It’s like a mission?

  Jason – Yes, I would be pretty annoyed if my phone kept buzzing every two seconds as I walked around.

Estimote's CEO explains how the rise of iBeacon sensors will lead to a simpler, easier world.

     iBeacons are small Bluetooth devices that can recognize smart phones within inches. The phone user will have to be running "the corresponding app" to connect with the Bluetooth so they can be sent electronic promotions, coupons, greetings, etc. Estimote CEO Jakub Krzych, who's company created the Beacon, "envisions stores where you never go to a cash register, wait in line, sign a receipt, swipe a credit card." iBeacon will allow customers to complete transactions electronically.

Burberry’s Central London store aims to embody their web experience by featuring technology like mirrors that act as a video screen, Radio-frequency identification chips that’ll trigger related footage when someone brings a certain product into a dressing room, or monitors throughout the store streaming the history and heritage of the brand.

Retail Spaces are looking to embrace technology as a way to fight the convenience of shopping online by introducing Body Scanners that provide shoppers with a custom shopping list of all the merchandise in the store that would fit them perfectly without having to try anything on.

  Stores like Kiehls are incorporating apps that'll allow their shoppers to Social Proof their perspective products through reviews by simply scanning a barcode.

Virtual try-on is another technology thats gaining momentum for brands like Saks Fifth Avenue, Alexander Wang, and My-Wardrobe.com that allows shoppers to choose from models who look similar to themselves and style them with the retailers clothes via touch screen panel or interactive mirror.