RETAIL

Even while ecommerce and online shopping have built a strong presence in the world of retail, reports proclaiming the death of in-store shopping are, to quote Mark Twain, “greatly exaggerated.”

What is true is that for those customers who are used to nearly limitless shopping options online, the return to a physical retail store can be a bit jarring.

• “We’re out of your size.”
• “We just sold the last one this morning.”
• “We don’t have it in red, how about blue?”

But thanks to newer technologies, smart brick-and-mortar retailers address these issues and dissolve the boundaries between online and in-store shopping with interactive content. “What we did was marry the best of both worlds,” says Trevor Sumner, CEO of Perch, a digital display solutions provider on the front lines of product engagement marketing.

Real-time analytics, digital-signage displays, augmented reality, and computer vision are all used to create a fun, unique customer experience. Not only are the customers more engaged in-store, but the interactive kiosks also improve brand exposure and drive purchases—in some cases leading to sales lifts as high as 130 percent.

“Lift and Learn” with Digital Displays

Perch offers a “Lift and Learn” Interactive Retail Displays solution that has already been implemented across a wide variety of retail brands.

The solution was created around a simple concept: “I can click on a product online to get more information. Why can’t I do that in-store?”

“Our sales data shows 87 percent of people start their product journeys online because that’s where the content is—the ratings, the reviews, the videos,” says Sumner. “An in-store Perch experience of the customer picking up an item is the equivalent of an online click.’ They pick it up and all the rich media and content available is there, right at the fingertips of the customer.”

Luxury fashion brand Kate Spade partnered with Perch to integrate the in-store experience with its online presence for a customizable bag collection called “Make it Mine.”

A shopper can choose a base bag, then customize the flap, strap, and lock to create a completely personalized purse. Perch and Kate Spade brought this fully interactive experience into retail locations to provide an “endless aisle” experience for customers, combining the excitement of limitless options with the immediacy of being in the store.

In the Kate Spade store, the customer picks up a handbag and a configurator loads on an interactive display that shows all the available options. Stripes? Polka dots? Metallic leopard? Yes! All available. Strap or no strap? And that’s not the end.

“They can also see how choosing three different flaps or three different straps can actually yield nine different purse combinations,” says Sumner. “So the potential for selling more than just one bag is greatly enhanced.” (Video 1)

“An in-store experience of the customer picking up an item is the equivalent of an online ‘click.’ They pick it up and all the rich media and content available is there.” @TrevorSumner, @PerchExperience

Personalized Recommendations with AI Data Analytics

Macy’s and other retailers, including Jo Malone, MAC, Sephora, CoverGirl, and Bumble & Bumble, create fresh new experiences with the Perch platform, too. Macy’s Fragrance Bar organizes fragrances by category—-floral, sweet, citrus, spicy, fresh, woodsy—instead of by brand.

“What Macy’s recognized is that the way that products are merchandised in-store is not the way customers want to shop,” says Sumner. “So now customers start by taking a quick quiz, which profiles them and suggests a fragrance category. The fragrance a customer picks up determines what media or experience they will get.”

This is a win-win for both consumers and brands. The consumer sees all the different fragrances that may be a good fit for them; the brands can showcase the rich media assets that they’ve created to promote their products.

Macy’s then takes the omnichannel shopping experience to the next level by integrating a seamless checkout experience. This means shoppers can access the Macy’s website or their app to order the product they’re looking at, and have it delivered to their home—or pay for it with Macy’s touchscreen self-checkout kiosk and walk right out of the store with their new item.

Rich Media for Customers, Rich Data for Brands

The front-end experience that Perch helps brands provide is equaled by its back-end processing, real-time retail analytics, and insights into customer behavior and conversion.

“We can track shopper behavior over time so that brands can examine campaign, creative, store locations, and regional performance,” says Sumner. “There’s easy access to data about which products shoppers pick up most often, the total time the customer is engaged, and which products convert best to sales.”

Perch relies on both Intel^® NUC and Intel^® RealSense^™ technology to deliver innovative and immersive solutions in an affordable way that’s easily scalable.

“We use computer vision to figure out what people are touching,” Sumner explains. “These are highly sophisticated algorithms, and when the display ‘wakes up’ and activates a marketing application, we could have videos playing, a configurator running, an augmented-reality experience going. Having an integrated stack and a proven player from Intel^® is critical. Retail is a very chaotic environment; we needed something rugged and proven, so we’ve been really happy with the Intel architecture to base our platform on.”

This article was edited by Christina Cardoza, Associate Editorial Director for insight.tech.

This article was originally published on February 5th, 2020.