Global Retail Executive Council

The intersection of technology and store design

I had the opportunity again this year to address the International Retail Design Conference on the subject of technology-enabled design two weeks ago in Toronto. Out of the conversations stemming from this presentation, it quickly became apparent that this is a major area of both interest and concern to retailers, as the opportunities to bring the disciplines together are immense... as are the potential challenges.

In that presentation, I explored 5 "Do's and Don'ts" of technology-enabled design:


1. Don't let your competition design your shopping experience.

Designers are used to thinking of the in-store experience as self-contained and in their control. No matter what influences a 21st century shopper may have been under OUTSIDE the store (marketing/advertising, ecommmerce, social media, etc.), once they step into the store, they're free of those influences. That's simply no longer the case, as competitors can (and do) connect with shoppers at the store shelf using tools like Amazon's mobile app. With two touches on their phone, a shopper can go from considering a product in your store... to purchasing it from Amazon, at a lower price and without the overhead of bringing the product to the shelf. This leaves retailers with a simple choice: step up and create a better mobile enabled shopping experience that keeps the shopper engaged with the brand both physically and electronically... or cede half the shopping experience to competitors.


2. Do start thinking of yourself as an experience designer.

The discipline of store design is changed by the addition of the new tools next-generation technology brings to the table. Technology has in the past been relegated to the IT department and design constrained to the in-store experience... and never the twain shall meet. The future of "store design" is taking the shopping experience and expanding the touchpoints beyond the physical elements of the store. Store designers must embrace a future where their "designs" are experience that touch the shopper at home, on the go, and in the store... not just physical elements within the store itself.


3. Don't think technology use is (too) generational.

It's far to easy to dismiss technology as something that only the youngest generation of shoppers embraces, and therefore not relevant to "our target shoppers." The truth is that shoppers of virtually all demographics are rapidly adopting new technologies into their lives, and retailers that dismiss incorporating technology into their store experiences run the risk of being perceived as increasingly irrelevant by ALL their shoppers, not just the young ones. The fastest growing segment of Facebook users, for example, isn't college students: it's women 45-54, and these tech-enabled mid-life women represent a powerful buying segment who are already FAR ahead of most retailers in their use of technology.


4. Remember that 50% of shoppers will be carrying smartphones in 2012.

The window of opportunity for retailers to take a "leading edge" or even "fast follower" role in embracing mobile technology is closing rapidly. Ecommerce players like Amazon and Zappos already have strong mobile strategies in place, and retailers deploying mobile solutions will quickly see the perception of their innovation shift from thought-leader to also-ran. Analyst estimates vary somewhat, but all project a tipping point within two years where the majority of shoppers are carrying and using smartphones. And retailers should keep in mind that on average, the demographics of their shoppers will skew slightly higher than the "average" American... so the percentage of smartphone users amongst their most important shopping segments will likely be even higher.


5. Consider a trip to Japan for inspiration.

While examples abound all over the world of retailers who are "doing it right" with store design, Japan alone has the unique advantage of a very well evolved mobile infrastructure. Near ubiquity (and universal compatibility) of smartphones that can read a single barcode standard, display information, and even allow payment means that shoppers in Japan are simply more used to using their phones in the shopping process than any other single market. From Japanese gardens to convenience stores to public transportation, Japan abounds with cutting edge examples of mobile shopping. The JAPANSHOP expo in March 2011 offers a unique opportunity to see the intersection of technology and design both from the retail industry perspective and examples scattered around in stores.


6. Don't be afraid to take risks; this is the time to experiment.

There is no right or wrong answer to technology-enabled store design, and what will benefit retailers the most right now is the willingness and ability to experiment and make (controlled) mistakes. The bottom line is that there are many new shopping patterns and dynamics emerging, and taking advantage of these new shopping ideas requires trying new things, measuring the results, and deploying those that work. Without both a willingness and ability to learn from those trials, retailers will relegate technology into old paradigms in the store... a fatal mistake that will let their competition leapfrog ahead.

Obviously, this isn't a complete list, but starting here will give retailers - and in particular store designers - a good foundation for begining to bring technology into the store.

The entire presentation, including slides and video, is hosted on our Vimeo channel, and you can view both parts - or an eight-minute shortened version - below.

IRDC 2010: The Do's and Don'ts of Tech Enabled Store Design - Part One

 

IRDC 2010: The Do's and Don'ts of Tech Enabled Store Design - Part Two

 

IRDC 2010: The Do's and Don'ts of Tech Enabled Store Design - 8-minute Short Version

 

The iPad in Retail: All Bark and No Bite?

A few weeks ago, I explained some ways in which the iPad could be used to revolutionize the retail industry, specifically in the way it can be used to boost sales associates' knowledge and overall usefulness. However, as we've seen in recent weeks with the iPhone 4, Apple is not infallible, and its products do contain their faults, which could prevent it from becoming a player in the retail business space. So this post will be somewhere between a reality check for Apple fanboys (yes, we know a few work in retail) and the right side of a SWOT chart.

First of all, a major problem is simply a security matter: Having a $700 piece of technology laying around your store with access to much of your business intelligence isn't a very safe system. After all, it's much easier to slip an iPad in your shirt than trying to, for example, fit a kiosk in your purse. Plus, as a hot consumer device (with waitlists to even get one), they're more likely to walk out the door than, say, an IBM 4690 would be.

But beyond the logistics of keeping track of loose iPads, the devices still have many problems that brings their usefulness in retail into question. A major barrier is Apple's app store, which doesn't allow third-party applications. Retailers could "jailbreak" the device (or some less criminally named process since it's now an "enterprise activity") to allow them to deploy in-house developed "apps," but this would likely void the warranty and render the device bricked with the slightest code errors.

There are also a slew of hardware problems that make the iPad hard to use.

• reports of WiFi connectivity issues
• no multitasking, which means 100% application integration on the back end 
• no camera, which means it can't be used to scan barcodes (unless you want to buy an external camera or barcode scanner, which pretty much defeats the purpose of such a sleek and sexy device). This is a huge disadvantage for the iPad, since many customers will be walking into stores with barcode-scanning abilities in their own pockets via smartphone.

Similarly, the iPad very publicly and explicitly does not support Flash. Many retailers such as Nike, Converse, Arctic Cat, and IKEA use Flash elements on their websites, which would make accessing those sites impossible via the iPad. The iPad also doesn't support GPS, and with geolocation becoming a hot new thing in retail, not having GPS ability will greatly impair the iPad's retail impact. For example, it makes it much harder for the sales associate to help a customer find a nearby location where they can find the item they're looking for if the store they're currently in doesn't have it in stock.

Another problem with the iPad is that you need adaptors like CRAZY to hook anything up to the tablet. You even need an adaptor for a USB plug! This would make it very inconvenient to attach the iPad to any of your in-store devices. One last problem is simply a matter of typing ability: The touch-screen keyboard makes it rather inconvenient to type with one hand while holding the iPad with your other hand, which would be the typical position sales associates would be in when using the tablet to help customers.

With all these downfalls, it seems unlikely that the iPad will catch on as a major tool for retailers to employ. Like so many "next great things" at the consumer level, the enterprise implications are just a little too challenging to make adoption easy.

However, this isn't to suggest that tablets aren't useful in retail; in fact, their potential is enormous. Cisco's recently released Cius tablet is specifically aimed at businesses, and it explicitly fixes many of the aforementioned problems with the iPad: It is compatible with a company's current Cisco business applications, it has a camera and can be integrated with existing Cisco telephone and conferencing products, it offers both USB and bluetooth connectivity, and it even will support 4G. Plus, to Steve Job's chagrin, it runs on the Android platform which offers far greater adaptability and configuration options.

It remains to be seen who what tablet maker will come out on top in the retail space, but with Cisco specifically targeting businesses rather than consumers, the battle has already begun.

Jim Crawford: "Adapting to the Rise of the Mobile Shopper" at RTC 2010

GREC Executive Director Jim Crawford gave a presentation on "Adapting to the Rise of the Mobile Shopper" at the RIS News Retail Technology Conference in Orlando, Florida, in April 2010. The presentation explained why mobile retail is important, who the "mobile shopper" is (surprisingly, not just techno geeks!), what exactly we mean by "mobile retail," and how you can leverage mobile in your own retail operations. The video is embedded below for your convenience.

What did you think of the presentation? Are you using any of these techniques in your stores? Do you agree or disagree with Jim's assessment of the mobile shopper?

"Adapting to the Rise of the Mobile Shopper" from Global Retail Executive Council on Vimeo.

Best Buy enhances mobile retail strategy with new Android app and iPhone upgrade

With its recent revamp of its iPhone app and the announcement of an app for the Android smartphone platform, Best Buy is clearly leading the retail pack in terms of support for multiple platforms. Both apps are nicely formatted to the platforms and do a great job of presenting information from bestbuy.com in an easier to navigate way. And embracing a multi-handset strategy that allows a greater percentage of Best Buy shoppers to use the app is a core element of a true "mobile retail" approach.

But despite Best Buy's leadership in UI and handset support, they still have a couple big features missing that keep the apps from being truly amazing shopping tools.

• Too much focus on the "mobile Web" instead of the phone as a shopping tool: The search features are good, and Best Buy does a nice job making the parameter selection optimized to the phone UI, but shoppers on the go with their smartphones want different information... Many of the tasks the search and product information is optimized for simply are better conducted on a desktop, while many urgent/mobile tasks remain unaddressed by the apps (e.g. "I need a refrigerator under $500 that is in stock at the Best Buy near my house... which models do you have that meet that criteria?")

• Very little support for in-store shopping: Again, Best Buy errs on the side of too much mobile Web, too little shopping. Completely missing are features like store maps, or even enhanced information on what product lines are carried in each store. The focus seems clearly to be on getting shoppers into the stores rather than helping them once they get there.

• Missing features competitive apps already have: Best Buy's app misses one of the key features that competitors big and small adopted months ago: use of the camera as an interface. If I'm in a Best Buy store and want to get information on a product, I'll be more likely to open Amazon Remembers and snap a photo of the cover and the flip it open and type in the SKU into Best Buy's app.

Tweetless in New York: A Look Back at NRF's BIG Show 2010

Now that everyone has had some time to decompress after the jam-packed NRF Big Show 2010, it’s time to look back at what can actually be taken from the event to help retailers move ahead and stay competitive in the increasingly changing retail world as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. This year, the main buzz was all about three major components of modern retail: social, mobile, and multi-channel. Ironically, technical difficulties preventing many attendees from accessing their mobile services from the show floor, and there were quite a few unnecessary headaches.

Of course, no one should be surprised that mobile, social, and multi-channel retail were the buzzwords this year; the signs are all around us! Social networking is ubiquitous, with everyone from your preteen daughter to your elderly grandmother “friending” you on Facebook or tweeting about their day's activities. This is important because, according to a recent report by Econsultancy, 90% of online shoppers trust online purchase recommendations from people they know. There really is nothing better than word-of-mouth advertising, and the ever-growing social networking medium has only made word-of-mouth (or word-of-keyboard?) more essential for retailers to harness.

These days, however, there’s always an easier way to share with your friends online. The most recent major addition to the universe of social networking is Blippy.com, which launched last week. Blippy is a website which, simply put, broadcasts every single purchase you make on your credit card, for everyone to see. Why bother to post a recommendation on Facebook for a good restaurant, when all your friends can simply log into Blippy and see that you just spent $250 there?

Personally, I can’t ever see myself joining Blippy (because I don’t want my parents or employers seeing me throw away $40 at the bars on a Wednesday night), but even the main page of the website is something to behold; I just watched a man in Delaware spend $184.47 at a Home Depot, and another man in Utah just spent $589.24 at the Powderwood Resort. And then, amazingly, I found myself looking at the Powderwood Resort’s website and thinking, “Huh. That seems like a really nice place to stay.” I now know that the Powderwood Resort exists, and if I’m ever planning a vacation to Utah, I’ll probably look there first. Behold the addicting magic of Blippy!

In addition to social networking, the mobile component is similarly changing the way people shop. Previously, the internet was a separate entity in a fixed location that you would “go to” when you needed to look something up. It was really not very different from another store, albeit a store parked on top of your own desk - and many retailers even manage "ecommerce" as a separate store. But things have changed, and retailers cannot afford to think of the internet as a separate destination -- it is everywhere, and a growing number of shoppers are connected to the internet 24/7 through their phones and mobile devices. When I recently stepped into Powell’s Books in downtown Portland, I picked up a book and headed to the checkout line. Halfway there, I stopped, snapped a picture of the cover of the book on my Motorola Droid, and the Amazon app told me I could buy it online for $5 less. I purchased the book using my phone, returned Powell’s copy to the shelf, and walked out of the store empty-handed. Put simply: If you’re not already in the mobile retailing game, you need to be.

The multi-channel approach has been around longer than social networking or mobile retailing, but that does not mean the art of multi-channel retail has been perfected. To shoppers, it is practically second nature to research a purchase online before buying it offline. To remain competitive, a store needs to use its website to make it simple and fast for a potential customer to find what they are looking for, and to make that purchase from you. If you don’t have the desired item in stock, then consumers expect you to get it for them -- after all, you sell it on your website, don’t you? -- and at no extra cost.

Despite the buzz and the importance of these topics at NRF, however, all three of these components failed miserably at the Javits Center. Many attendees discovered it was practically impossible to get a phone signal, so people like GREC staff were unable to live tweet and provide real-time updates on the sessions or from the show floor. People NOT attending the show were looking for real-time coverage via Twitter and blog posts, not waiting for days for a post-show wrapup. It's 2010, not 1999, and persistent and reliable network connectivity should be pretty much ubiquitous -- especially in New York City! This didn't just hit the press, it also diminished the messages and ideas of the presenters as they got far less exposure than they should have. I know I personally was looking forward to getting to hear about the presentations and events via Twitter, only to see the updates few and far between (and many of those updates simply being variations of, “Why are all my calls being dropped? ARRRGHHH!” or "No signal, no tweets").

So the real question is: How can retailers who attended the show believe the three hot buzzwords would impact their stores when they themselves could not even experience it during the event? While these concepts ARE very important, it seems kind of ironic to stress social and mobile retail while simultaneously venting your frustration about not being able to access Twitter on your phone!

The silver lining is that there is an important lesson in these unfortunate technological failures. For those retailers who experienced technical difficulties at the show, you should remember your frustration as an example of what customers feel when a retailer’s website is virtually useless in augmenting their purchasing decisions. That feeling you had, where you thought, “I really wish I could tweet this amazing quote to my followers!” is an example of what you want your customers to feel, to get them thinking, “Oh, I should tweet about this amazing product I just bought!”

So while there were some frustrations and headaches due to the technical setbacks, the overall message is the same: Social networking, mobile devices, and the internet are changing retail forever, and if you want to flourish, you need to make sure your customers don’t ever get the same type of headache attendees experienced from their phones failing on the show floor.

The convergence of humanity, retail technology, and your mobile phone

Normally, the biggest story I would write on coming out of NRF would be technology related: evolution of a new platform approach to mobile retailing... next-generation digital signage... new retail analytics... that sort of thing. But this year is quite different.

 

It's not that there wasn't fascinating new technologies and developments on the show floor and in the conference sessions, but rather that, for me personally and professionally, all of that was eclipsed at 4:53PM on the 12th of January when a 7.0 magnitude quake tore through Haiti.

 

It truly took time for the news to filter through our consciousnesses... NRF is like that, one 96-hour flurry of meetings and events, heads down, maybe Tweeting out occassionally but on the whole utterly and totally focused. It's like the world consists of the Javits Center and a few blissful hours of sleep in the hotel room, and that's it for both New York City and our awareness of the world.

 

So, as the true magnitude of the tragedy in Haiti began to burn its way into our psyches, most of us were wrapping up our business at NRF. The mobile retail panel, last minute meetings, store visits...

 

 Last year, when US Airways Flight 1549 went down in the Hudson River on 15 January, most of us held our breaths as we waited to find out which (not if any) of our retail friends and colleagues were on that flight, and by the grace of God the one good friend I had on that plane survived body and soul intact. So this is the second NRF marked with a tragedy, and I hope 2011 proves kinder to the world than the start of this year has.

 

On Thursday night, I had the opportunity to see a Broadway musical in New York... a new experience for me. We ended up being able to see Fela!, which chronicles the latter years of Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician active in the anti-colonial politics of the late 1960s and 1970s in that country. I was, shall we say, skeptical... "Musical" to me conjures up images of Cats and "jazz hands," so I was honestly expecting to sit through it cheerfully, but walk away with my mind unchallenged and my own soul intact and unaffected.

 

Nothing could have been further from the experience.

 

This blog post is half theater review, half technology "wow" story, and half an impassioned plea to all to remember the lessons that the first couple weeks of this year have brought home in a very personal way to many of us.

 

Fela! is an amazing musical, and perhaps on its own one of the best-written theater pieces I've ever seen. I'll leave the glowing reviews of the musical itself to professionals, but what was TRULY amazing (and relevant to the retail audience) is the seamless integration of digital projection and incredible set design. Any retail designer who witnesses what was accomplished in the musical would be utterly transfixed and absolutely inspired by what the designers of Fela! have pulled off.

 

 For starters, the "screens" on which elements are projected are completely integrated into the set design, so there's no "look up here" but rather "look here, no here, no HERE!" as the projected videos subtly reinforce what's happening on the stage.

 

The effect is used very powerfully to illustrate when Fela's mother, Finmilayo Ransome-Kuti, is influencing his words and actions: in an effect so eerily similar to the "moving" pictures in Harry Potter, the painted portrait of her facing toward the audience appears to turn its head to look down at Fela on the stage. This perfect integration of physical art and digital projection simply must be seen to be believed and should inspire anyone designing physical spaces like stores.

 

And finally, beyond the incredibly inspiring retail technology experience of watching the musical, the content itself left me grieving and aching all the more for what has befallen my beloved Haiti. It was almost impossible to watch any part of Fela! with dry eyes, and at the end, when the entire cast slowly walks through the audience and up onto the stage carrying coffins marked with the things that we all mourn, from Fela's mother to concepts like "hope" and "integrity," it brought home to me a very personal lesson that sometimes those of us who are privileged to live in an affluent country and live relatively fear-free sometimes forget.

 

We are all children of Africa, from Fela Kuti in Nigeria to the survivors of Flight 1549 to the victims of the Mumbai massacre in 2008 to the millions hovering between life and death in Haiti today. The color of our skin may differ, and the languages and cultures we embrace may not be the same, but in the end we are first and foremost human beings, and now those of us with the most have a sacred obligation to those of us who have just had the fragile, tiny least they used to possess be ripped away beneath tumbling walls and newly erased roads.

 

The need is great for urgent relief in Haiti, and we have seen truly a modern miracle of technology in the incredible outpouring of support via text message: as of Tuesday 19 January, $24 million had been raised for the Red Cross via text donations. The total for all charities in 2009: $4 million. This outpouring of support and embracing of the mobile phone as a vehicle for paying for things has brought millions of Americans into a new realm of technology usage. I was at Forrester Research when 9/11 hit, and there were over 2 million Americans who made their very first ecommerce transaction online to make a donation after that event. Haitian relief is a similar watershed moment in mobile payment, and one that on both a personal and a professional level, I am deeply grateful for.

 

But, getting food, water, medical help and shelter into Haiti is only the beginning. The entire country will need rebuilding help. The infrastructure needs to be brought into the 20th century, then into the 21st. There were 50,000 plus orphans waiting for adoption before the quake, and doubtless tens of thousands more after. In short, there's a lot to do.

 

So, we'd like to do two things as the Global Retail Executive Council. The first is to strongly urge each and every human being with a pulse who reads this to help; do something, whether it's texting HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross, or getting involved personally or financially to help the millions of orphans around the globe through the Retail Orphan Initiative (RetailROI). The people who have started and run that organization represent some of the best of us, and as they dedicate a large part of their lives to helping orphans, we are asking all of you to join us in supporting that work. They're good people; it's our industry, and it IS making a difference.

 

And second, and in honor of the only American to have a holiday solely dedicated to him, we were further inspired this week by the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. I don't think this holiday has ever fallen at a time worthy of more introspection, thought, and inspiration, and one of Dr. King's quotes seems particularly apropos this year:

 

When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.

 

Now is the time for all good people to plan... to build and bind... and to commit themselves to the glories of love. Solving the problems created by the earthquake in Haiti needs more than donations, it requires good kind smart people putting all their talents together to solve the unsolvable and fix the shattered. No one quite yet knows what form this will take, but as we march into 2010, GREC invites... well, actually, we expect... all of you to participate in the conversation and use your talents and ideas and thoughts to help in ways that money simply can't. Be good, be smart, and speak up. Your voice will join the others who are dedicating some part of their life to making a difference, and it is through the harmony and dissonance of those voices that we in retail can make a difference, not only in our industry, but in the world.

 

Thank you.

Retail ROI Audio Highlights: Deborah Weinswig, Citi

Citi's Deborah Weinswig comments on mobile in retailing.

Weinswig1

New Year's Resolution: the death of paper coupons

There's something very compeling for me to finish out the year with one last blog post - even if it means slotting it in at midnight between what has been a month long flurry of holiday related and tiring "to-dos".

It should be no surprise, but one of the mother-of-all "to-dos" for me this time of year is shopping. Shopping like NOBODY'S business. By the time Christmas has rolled around the "fun" of shopping or pleasure of it has long vanished. This probably has something to do with the multiple trips to multiple stores made nearly every day over the past six weeks.  An average day goes a little something like this...go get flour for cookies I promised to make with the kids that I forgot on my big grocery store trip the day before, buy more Scotch tape after my 6 year old generously wraps one present with an entire roll, go on a cross-town quest to find the perfect jewelry box for my daughter and that DS game that nobody seems to have in stock - yet it's the only one my son wants!  Augh!!! Normally, I like to shop. Heck, at times it's my therapy. (See blog posts on shoes if you require confirmation of this statement...) But come November and December it's just not fun. I try desperately to plan my trips, determine my routes ahead of time, prepare my lists, and... collect my coupons - all with an eye towards being more efficient and fiscally shrewd. This turns out to be more difficult to achieve than not. Especially the fiscally shrewd part. It's the coupons that kill me.

Recently, I couldn't help, but notice a woman in the grocery store with a HUGE box of coupons. While I manically rushed down the aisle trying to find decorative sprinkles for our cookies, she was sorting and organizing in her cart a myriad of coupons. I passed her twice still not finding them (turned out to be on a holiday baking end cap! Grrrr...) and on my third pass asked her how much time did she think she spent organizing and sorting through her coupons.  She exhaustedly remarked a better part of a day and at least 30 minutes in-store so that she didn't miss any of the ones that were going to expire or that she wanted to use that trip. What the heck? WOW. I didn't know if I should admire her for all her work or feel terribly bad for her for all of the time it took. I asked her if I could take a picture of her box (thinking I would eventually blog on this) and she happily obliged. (Although I think she was certain I was a nut.)

So back to my point about coupons... (believe it or not there is one)

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of coupon related announcement and news stories as retailers raced to get that last little bit of revenue recognized for 2009. But increasingly, these coupons - as valuable as they might be - are going the wrong direction and actually leaving shoppers more frustrated. So as our parting gift to retailers for 2009, we offer the following advice on making coupons in 2010 suck less:

• Attention all retailers: offering coupons online that can only be redeemed by PRINTING them out and bringing them into your store is SO 2002... If you're serializing for fraud prevention, I can understand it... but if it's the same bloody barcode on every coupon, why can't you simply read the coupon off my phone (and yes, I understand the difficulties of laser scanners and cell phones... that's why cashiers have 10-key pads)? Guess what? I read email on my phone, so when you email me a coupon... that's where it goes. And guess what else? I CAN'T PRINT FROM MY PHONE. Sigh. I was in Michael's buying my son's last Christmas present, and was told by the cashier that they couldn't accept the coupon because "they needed something to put in the drawer." Guess that means another trip to return the present and redeem the coupon. Thanks for the convenience...
• Training your staff that people get email on cell phones is critical. A friend sent me an REI e-gift card, which was great because the email specifically made it clear that I could redeem it online or in-store. The problem was, the clerk didn't know how to redeem it, and it took far longer than it should for me to get my new running gloves. More and more shoppers will be bringing in email coupons on their cell phones, so simply telling them "no" or "ummmm... how do you do that again?" won't hold up in 2010. 
• With much hoopla, A&P announced it was offering printable coupons from their Web site. Why do I need to kill a tree to get offers from one electronic system (the Web) to another electronic system (the retailer's POS)? What's next, making me print my text messages and flick them as spitballs to get them to my friends? I'm not the nerd here at GREC, but bottom line: printing on paper is unnecessary and bad for the environment. So stop making us do it. And my purse (when I carry one) is heavy enough without a messy pile of paper coupons in it.
• Don't go halfway and make it confusing for shoppers. Whole Foods offers "a selection of printable coupons" on their Web site and the rest in their printed in-store flyer. Right now, after digging through three layers on the site to find them, I was "rewarded" with exactly SIX coupons to select from and print. SIX??? And to top it off, downloading a PDF of the flyer (which promises "$40+ in coupons" boldly on the cover) gives a DIFFERENT four coupons for a grand total of $3 off. Now I'm confused, and REALLY annoyed because I don't know what to do to get my coupons. Keep it simple and easy for shoppers, Mr. Mackey! 
• And last but not least, Kroger and P&G have parted ways on the e-coupon front. The official story is over whose Web site got the traffic, but bottom line the shoppers' reactions have been the same: I want my coupons. Proof positive that in a tough economy the blame sticks to everyone.   

Whew! It's done... my last blog posting for 2009. Hope you got all your to-do's checked off and are ready to start 2010 with a clean slate. Thanks for reading our musings this past year!

Happy New Year from the Global Retail Executive Council!

Back from the dead: Innovative approaches from around the world to the battery life dilemma

Last month, as part of our continuing exploration of mobile retailing, we posted on the increasing problem facing heavy mobile phone users: short battery life. While many of us in the United States are simply told "use your phone less or differently," around the world there are a number of innovative solutions being employed to bring power to mobile users in less developed infrastructures that offer some key ideas for retailers looking to solve the paradox of asking power-pressed shoppers to use a phone with a low battery to shop in the store.

1. In Kenya, two entrepreneurs have come up with a mechanism to turn one hour on a bicycle into a full charge on a cell phone. While pushing a similarly equipped shopping cart around the store wouldn't generate quite as much energy and speed as bicycling (unless, of course, you're bobshopping), it should provide plenty to give shoppers enough power to stay connected and use their phones while in the store.
   

 



2. Urban malls which attract shoppers from potentially "unpowered" neighborhoods (Mumbai, Johannesburg, etc.) are using phone charging machines to quickly power up their shoppers' phones. Though the same concept has played out in US airports as well, the relatively low cost of the mall-based machines (in Abu Dhabi, machines use one dirham coins - about US$.27) and paucity of power alternatives make the mall-based charges more attractive. Retailers considering this approach to stretch power in their stores, however, need to remember: if the phone is locked in a charger, it can't be scanning 2d barcodes or displaying coupons.

 



3. Consider offering a "phonesitting" service for free. Retailers in South Africa have long offered free phone charging for shoppers coming in from villages without power. Why not consider offering phone charging as a free service during long mall trips? Though many shoppers would be loathe to give up even a moment of texts, tweets, and Facebook updates... if the alternative is a black screen from a dead battery, 10 minutes of charging while they browse your store is a cheap way to make yourself their hero.

 



4. In Uganda, charging a mobile phone battery at one of the ubiquitous kiosks on the street costs 500 Ugandan Shillings (US$.26)... but fully charging a car battery only costs 1000 Shillings (US$.52) and can provide power for radios, CD players, television, domestic lighting, and mobile phones... for a month. The same "power logic" would apply to a shopping cart-mounted battery that charged a customer's phone as they cruised the store while still leaving the phone in their hands and usable for shopping activities. 

 



5.  Just enough phone rather than just enough battery life. Nokia, focusing on emerging markets and launching first in Indonesia, recently debuted phones with up to 22 days of standby time. The phone has yet to experience the "netbook" phenomena where the average price point of a laptop plummeted rather than seeing exponential new features added to it. Manufacturers will increasingly view the "battery life versus performance" tradeoff as tilting toward more battery life and less performance, particularly as the power of smartphones increasingly eclipses the "average user's" needs.

 



6. Solar power cells are declining in cost every year, and while there simply isn't enough ambient light inside the store to power a phone, there is definitely enough space on the sides of shopping carts to provide substantial power to an onboard battery. Particularly in high-sun parts of the world where shopping carts in the parking lot sit in bright sunlight for hours of the day, this approach could both take advantage of government programs to boost solar usage and drive down the cost of offering on-cart power to shoppers in the store. It's not a complete solution (yet) but as Tesco says... "Every little helps..."

Point of sale on a mobile phone? There's an app for that...

The mobile wars just got a little hotter as point-of-sale has become the latest crossover from specialized retail equipment to commonly available consumer mobile handset.

That's right... you can now do point-of-sale transactions, including processing credit cards, on the iPhone. While there have been several "point-of-sale" applications available on the iPhone (and other platforms) the new offering from Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey has taken a very innovative approach to transaction processing on the iPhone with the recent public announcement of Square:

• A mag-stripe reader plugs into the headphone jack makes the "hardware" compatible with anything with an audio input, not just the iPhone.


• New security features leverage the form factor of a connected smartphone rather than fighting against it. For example, the iPhone can display a picture of the cardholder and ask "does this look like who is using the card?"


• Signature capture is via the multitouch screen... Very slick.


• Receipts are digital, removing the need for a mobile printer, and the service allows easy retrieval of receipts online as well as email to the purchaser.
• Integrated "loyalty card" functionality rewards repeat purchasers.

In short, this is - for what it is trying to do - a perfect POS app. Yes, there are new features that could be incorporate and yes, there is the need for back end accounting integration... but this looks simple, elegant, easy to use... and most importantly, allows both large and small retailers the ability to take advantage of the low cost of consumer hardware. Given the success Twitter has had with a simple, easy to use, and elegant application - with intentional limitations in pursuit of those goals - Square looks like another winner.

TechCrunch posted a video of the app in action: