Idea to bounce off you retailers!

ideaburst

Hi guys,

This is a fantastic forum, and I am looking forward to comments on a new concept I have come up with, specifically focused around addressing the growing issue / problem retailers have when it comes to showrooming. Retailers will obviously know what that is, I have included the link for anyone who isn't completely sure what it means or hasn't heard of the concept before.

Especially would like to hear from the likes of JD Dublin, PeterDalkey, Sandin, el rifle, Hammertime and anybody else with a bit of savvy

The app will allow you to engage with visitors to your store AFTER they have left the store. Quite simply, the app would allow people to take a snapshot of a product they would like to purchase, upload it to the app, and be notified about special offers or promotions on that product after they have left the store.

The benefits:

-Combat showrooming. Let people take pictures of the products they want, and / or let them leave the store without purchasing - but notify them as to the app!

-Engage customers after they leave the store. Target them with offers and promotions AFTER they leave the store.

-Reduce the likelihood that they will buy online. Sure they may see the product for a lower price online and buy it, but this may not be the case if they can feel confident that they can purchase the good(s) another time, at your store. You can't prevent them from buying online or elsewhere, but you can benefit from having their attention even after they leave your shop!

Anyway, all feedback most welcome. You can also feel free to PM me if this is something you would be particularly interested in, or if you have any specific feedback on other features that you'd love to see, or that you feel would work better / enhance the concept.

DubTony

ideaburst wrote: »

Especially would like to hear from the likes of JD Dublin, PeterDalkey, Sandin, el rifle, Hammertime and anybody else with a bit of savvy

:eek: WTF ????

Looks like I need to participate more in the forum ... or something.

ideaburst

DubTony wrote: »

:eek: WTF ????

Looks like I need to participate more in the forum ... or something.

Haha! Well I've got you on the hook now Tony, knew that would work :-)

Any thoughts for me on the app?

Michael D Not Higgins

The most effective combat to showrooming is removing model numbers which is already done. Rather than a photo system, I'd suggest that a QR code on items would be better. This could be linked to the shop's website and auto-added to a wishlist a la Amazon.

Kenny Logins

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

The most effective combat to showrooming is removing model numbers which is already done. Rather than a photo system, I'd suggest that a QR code on items would be better. This could be linked to the shop's website and auto-added to a wishlist a la Amazon.

Absent model numbers would make me walk out of the shop.

ideaburst

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

The most effective combat to showrooming is removing model numbers which is already done. Rather than a photo system, I'd suggest that a QR code on items would be better. This could be linked to the shop's website and auto-added to a wishlist a la Amazon.

Thanks for the reply, but no I think that is too complex and unworkable. Sure dresses in a clothes store aren't going to come with model numbers

The idea is that this should be a really simple play for both customers and shop owners across all sectors of retail. Snap a photo and it gets auto-added to your wishlist. That's it. Photos are simple, universal, half the population have smartphones - and everyone knows how to take a photo on one.

If it's complex, no-one will be bothered imo.

Michael D Not Higgins

The problem will come in when several different products that look similar can't be distinguished from a photo. A QR code could be on the label and could be processed server side as an image taken from the camera. It's no more complex than taking a photo of the whole thing (which can be complicated by larger items). You'd have to explain to customers how the system works anyway so telling them to take a picture of a code or picture of the whole thing is the same. The app could display the glossy showroom photos of the product too after being added.

DubTony

ideaburst wrote: »

Haha! Well I've got you on the hook now Tony, knew that would work :-)

Any thoughts for me on the app?

My c-store background meant I never had to worry about this, but I do think it's all about price. Amazon offers free shipping on any half decent purchase, so that's not an issue. Simply viewing a product there gets you regular emails about offers on that and similar items. Dozens of customer reviews mean that you can get all the info in one place. And with the massive number of products it carries these days, I think Amazon is the single biggest threat to all retailers, never mind high rents and rates.

I'd say that any app a retailer uses needs to be specifically for that shop, so I assume your idea is to develop an app and sell it to retailers. I'm a bit lost here to be honest. My retailing edge was always to provide excellent service and to make it as easy as possible for the customer to get what they wanted and give me their money. Amazon as good as does this online. But at the end of the day, even the best sales person is on a loser when the customer is simply looking for info from them knowing that as soon as he's gone they'll be online and checking the price for the same product.

Best I can do is this

http://econsultancy.com/ie/blog/62447-13-ways-for-retailers-to-deal-with-the-threat-of-showrooming

Interested to see what other on the forum have to offer.

GoodBridge

As a customer, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be taking snaps with an app so I could later be "notified about special offers or promotions on that product".

I wouldn't know who you're passing my details or shopping habits to.

How are you planning on detecting which store the photo was taken in? Why wouldn't I just take a pic of it and google it or even use something like google goggles (although it gave very America-biased results last time I tried it)?

Peterdalkey

Flattery will get you everywhere!!

Goodness me, I can see this leading to trouble straight off. The next thing we will have is proper salespeople in retail outlets actually selling products to people and giving them helpful product advice and doing the old "alternative choice close" and the like.
Sandin had a very good post on this general area in the last couple of days in dealing with competition including online vendors. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=84515932,.

I have no retail experience but I would imagine you are halfway there when you have the punter inside the door, as a serious retailer you should be running a sales outlet, not a showroom for your suppliers. As for anything that facilitates ongoing contact with existing or potential customers, I would be all for it. You will still need proactive salespeople to engage with the customers when they are in the shop however. How much formal sales training does the average retail assistant get these day? No much would be my guess, observing as an end customer.

Zaph

As a customer rather than a retailer I have to say that I honestly don't see any benefit in that app. If I'm going to go looking at a particular product in one or more shops and then go home and buy it cheaper online, I'm not going to be overly concerned about the chance that I may get a message informing me about a promotion at some unspecified point in the future. I want to buy it now, or at least fairly soon, so what are the chances that there'll be a promotion on that exact product within my time frame?

I'd also agree with the person who suggested QR codes if it's to work. Customers could take photos of the same product from all sorts of angles and conditions. How is the app going to know they're all the same thing?

In addition, the whole "Target them with offers and promotions AFTER they leave the store" would annoy me and make me feel like I was being spammed. Even more so if it was a one-off purchase in a shop that I'm unlikely to ever visit again.

ideaburst

Zaph wrote: »

As a customer rather than a retailer I have to say that I honestly don't see any benefit in that app. If I'm going to go looking at a particular product in one or more shops and then go home and buy it cheaper online, I'm not going to be overly concerned about the chance that I may get a message informing me about a promotion at some unspecified point in the future. I want to buy it now, or at least fairly soon, so what are the chances that there'll be a promotion on that exact product within my time frame?

Yes very good point, I have actually thought about this myself. If I am looking a product (e.g. a new pair of shoes, or a new bike), I probably want it more or less now, so I may not feel all that motivated to sign up for 'maybe in the future' offers.

The spamming aspect is not something to be concerned about, you won't sign up for the app in the first place if you think that you will be spammed. Also, it will be opt-in, you will have to go to the app to get notifications.

What I am thinking is that it could still work as an engagement tool after you visit the store - without the 'we will send you offer notifications on this particular product' element. So, you simply sign up after visiting to hear about special offers / promos, that you wouldn't hear about otherwise.

Of course, you could say that the shop could just tell you to 'like us on Facebook', but it's not exactly the same, or nearly as precise a method of reaching people.

I guess it is almost like a 'loyalty club' for those who have not yet purchased from you.

ideaburst

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Flattery will get you everywhere!!

Goodness me, I can see this leading to trouble straight off. The next thing we will have is proper salespeople in retail outlets actually selling products to people and giving them helpful product advice and doing the old "alternative choice close" and the like.
Sandin had a very good post on this general area in the last couple of days in dealing with competition including online vendors. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=84515932,.

I have no retail experience but I would imagine you are halfway there when you have the punter inside the door, as a serious retailer you should be running a sales outlet, not a showroom for your suppliers. As for anything that facilitates ongoing contact with existing or potential customers, I would be all for it. You will still need proactive salespeople to engage with the customers when they are in the shop however. How much formal sales training does the average retail assistant get these day? No much would be my guess, observing as an end customer.

Peter, yes I agree - anything that lends itself to ongoing contact with a willing, opted-in potential new customer seems like a no-brainer to me? Each store would have their own 'page' or area on the app where they could upload notifications or updates on special offers or promotions. Those who have opted in to receiving these updates would see them when they access the app.

So let's say you've downloaded the app and you've clicked to accept updates from John's Suits, Jim's Bikes, and Main Street Photography.

When you log-in, you see all the offers they currently have on.

Bridges the gap from offline to online.

The shop could even push sign-ups to the app even further through having 'app-only' time-sensitive offers, for example.

ideaburst

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

The problem will come in when several different products that look similar can't be distinguished from a photo. A QR code could be on the label and could be processed server side as an image taken from the camera. It's no more complex than taking a photo of the whole thing (which can be complicated by larger items). You'd have to explain to customers how the system works anyway so telling them to take a picture of a code or picture of the whole thing is the same. The app could display the glossy showroom photos of the product too after being added.

Cheers, the idea is that each photo is assigned to a particular store. So you can't just take a random photo that appears anywhere on the app, the photo will be assigned to a particular store. And since the app would be used mainly by local SME-type stores, it should be pretty easy to identify the product. Also, the sales people in-store could help and direct there too, if they really wanted.

Even without the photo element, as I said above I think there may be room for other features and avenues within this 'after visiting us' model.

Zaph

ideaburst wrote: »

And since the app would be used mainly by local SME-type stores, it should be pretty easy to identify the product.

It really isn't that simple. Here's an example of two TVs on the Power City website.

Model : 39LN540V



Model : 42LN540V



Other than one being bigger than the other, the two TVs are identical. How will the app know which one the customer took a photo of? If you had a QR code that could be scanned by the customer they can be sure they're getting the details for the correct model.

Ray Palmer

I don't see the point either. You can already use an app to scan a barcode and it does price comparisons on-line. You can select the stores you want it to look up too.

It seems like a better easier system than you the OP is proposing.

ideaburst

Zaph wrote: »

It really isn't that simple. Here's an example of two TVs on the Power City website.

Model : 39LN540V



Model : 42LN540V



Other than one being bigger than the other, the two TVs are identical. How will the app know which one the customer took a photo of? If you had a QR code that could be scanned by the customer they can be sure they're getting the details for the correct model.

Yes you are completely correct and that is obvious. I should have clarified from the start that I mainly have clothes shops in mind for the app, which would make items easier to identify. However, there is room for error there too, especially if two black cardigans look similar or something, or if someone takes a photo from a poor angle, and so on.

I am kind of moving away from the whole 'take a photo' element, towards an approach that would simply engage the customer after they have left the store.

Peterdalkey

ideaburst wrote: »

I am kind of moving away from the whole 'take a photo' element, towards an approach that would simply engage the customer after they have left the store.

Which brings us all the way back for the need for staff to engage properly with customers as salespeople and not order talkers/cashiers.

Cianos

I'm not too keen on the idea. There's far too much saturation nowadays with businesses pushing their various promotions through whatever avenue they can.

Initially I liked the idea of registering your interest in products you're interested in, in the hopes of getting a discount, but I think there are far too many steps involved here. The customer won't have much interest in downloading something just to open themselves up to another avenue of advertising. It would have to offer the customer something that is of genuine and relevant help, which I can't see with this.

Hope that helps!

Ray Palmer

Barcodes are the only way to go photo recognition of items is way too difficult. It would be much harder than face recognition software

Store specific items could work for the link to shops. Shops with their own brands would benefit but it would need to be an account type deal. Getting shops to sign up is the tricky bit otherwise you have to maintain all the data.

The other problem is fashion retail is much more complex than standard retail. Barcodes can include size and colour of the item. So a top one person likes may be on sale but never in the size or colour they wanted. Do you send them notification?

The idea is a about like a cookie for real life but requires the user to enter the information. I did see something being trialled before where if you listed things you liked a shop could offer you a deal based on those items being purchased together which could make it cheaper than another shop with better overall prices. Potential there.

It either requires a lot of maintenance or agreement from the retailer.

If you had a finished product you might get to sell it but it is a lot of work.

JD Dublin

Yes the phrase ''Suits you sir'' springs to mind.

I never got a free tie or shirt from Amazon when I bought a suit - I have done in a good old-fashioned shop. I have also never returned goods to Amazon ( I am sure someone will come on here to tell me how easy it is ). I have returned goods to traditional retailers.

Electronic goods are the obvious areas that are susceptible to showrooming e.g. computers, TVs, even washing machines / other white goods.

Clothes that are bought online seem to be the big recognised brands as the consumer knows what they are getting - so if I were you I would avoid the big brand clothes if you are stocking a shop. eg Calvin Klien, Hugo Boss, Jack Wills, Abercrombie etc etc.

That way you should avoid people coming in to try the clothes then buy online.

Mind you the article in Wikipedia says:

''Some speciality fashion stores in the US and Australia have introduced a "fitting fee" for browsing; this is refunded in full if the customer makes a purchase.''

Not sure if I believe that but anyway.

ideaburst

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I think the main issue with introducing a concept like this is that the market is very competitive and saturated (as mentioned in an earlier reply). There are a metric tonne of apps and startups doing the whole shopping voucher / points / deals thing, so it's hard to stand out.

Then, you are also up against the fact that a lot of consumers won't really care to begin with. By that I mean that if you are going in and out of shops you are most likely doing it for the physical experience of being there and taking everything in, something you don't get online. So bridging the gap between offline and online may not even be something that most people will be interested in all that much.