Barclays to trial Beacon technology in-branch
At last, major brands are starting to realize the importance of beacons and their wide-ranging functionality. Contrary to popular belief, Beacons are not only used to ping offers and discounts to consumers within a retail space. Barclays bank have announced they are trialling Beacon technology in-store to assist customers with disabilities, with trials started on the 3rd December to mark United Nations International day of disabilities (IDPD 2014). Addressing an issue that’s often associated with Beacons – privacy – Barclays customers can opt-in or out to receive this service and choose how much information they want to give.
With Beacon technology, this gap in much more inclusive customer service can (to a degree) be closed, and this is exactly what Barclays intend to do. The technology notifies a member of staff when a customer with accessibility needs enters a branch, reducing the need for customers to explain their circumstances and therefore improving their overall customer experience. Customers can even choose to upload a photo of themselves, making it easier for staff to identify and assist them on arrival. The uses of Beacon technology are extremely wide and varied, and we’ve predicted in the past that unfortunately some brands are bound to get it wrong at some point (look out for our Beacon best practice bible coming soon!) But, using the innovative technology to improve the customer experience on the whole, is what we believe it was created for. Well done Barclays.
Survey finds consumers trust their smartphones more than shop assistants
When asking for advice, who do you usually turn to? A relative? A friend? Your Smartphone? If you needed advice about a life/personal issue you would choose the former, but with regards to shopping, it’s the latter which proves most popular. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 58% of US consumers would rather trust information from their Smartphone than an actual shop assistant – and it’s a growing trend. But does this really come as a shock? With the rise in mCommerce and the Internet of Everything, who wouldn’t turn to their Smartphone for the pros and cons of a product, price comparisons or general product information? When it comes to buying, consumers now have more power than ever, and the ability to research products independently only enforces this. Of course, this varies across different sectors – luxury items will typically remain an in-store experience predominantly, but with regards to tech products, clothes and groceries, consumers are seeing the need for in-store assistance more irrelevant. As self-checkouts have proved, many consumers favor a human interaction-free shopping experience!
Comparing prices, reading ratings and reviews and Internet searches for more information are currently the most common Smartphone actions. eCommerce and showrooming will never completely replace bricks-and-mortar retail, but retailers will need to accept this rise in shopper behavior and align their strategies accordingly in order to become truly innovative.
How Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2014 shaped up
If you weren’t a part of it, you most probably would have seen or heard about the madness that was Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2014. Bigger than ever, people spent hours queuing, and were even trampled on in the Black Friday stampedes to get a good deal. It has been reported that shoppers spent almost $300m in bitcoin during Black Friday and cyber Monday, and mCommerce was the real winner as mobile traffic accounted for 59.8% of all online traffic in the UK on Friday. Social media was also a great catalyst of the shopping weekend, with Black Friday being mentioned 6.3m times between November 22nd and 28th. Most mentions were in the US (83%) whereas the UK held 6% of the social conversation, and women overall more likely to discuss the subject. Many eager shoppers were out in forces, buying online since 6am on the start of black Friday, although sales tending to peak around 6pm-9pm. Typically desktop sales have dominated Black Friday and Cyber Monday, however tablet and Smartphone sales show the highest conversion rates from last year.
The app that identifies the movie you’re watching and lets you buy what you see
Introducing… Shazam for movies! Company TheTake has launched an app, which, through automatically identifying movie scenes, can pinpoint products within that scene and make them readily available for viewers to purchase. And it’s not just the fancy stuff you would see on ‘Sex and the City’ or ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, the app aims to make professional content shoppable to the everyday consumer. Previously, we’ve seen click to buy functionality feature on media such as online and Interactive TV ads, but this app aims to take it one step further, becoming more attainable to everyday shoppers. The app’s technology required an audio recognition system and computer vision technology in order to identify products. Then, start to build up an extensive database of movies, their scenes and the products within those scenes. When launched, TheTake included more than 100 movies within its database, starting with the most recent successful movies and are currently working their way backwards. You can even request a movie to be added if your favourite flick isn’t currently included. TheTake say their technology even has the capacity to take on TV, Music videos and other professional multimedia content – no doubt much to the joy of product marketers!