Category: Retail

Shifting retail’s focus from e-commerce to an inclusive Customer Algorithm

E-commerce took off in the early 2000’s and created a buzz around 24-hour shopping, but it’s also heavily skewed retail marketing to rely on online insights to generate sales. In 2018, this focus is making a colossal shift back to a more balanced, in-depth ratio of offline to online consumer insights.

Offline insights are similar to Google Analytics for websites – rather than being for an online platform they identify and help retailers understand who is visiting their physical stores.

Understanding how consumers engage with your brand means collecting demographic data, social interests, movement and behavior data, dwell times, and frequency of visits. Physical venue insights make up a huge proportion of any industry customer base, and the importance of capturing this kind of data should not be ignored going into 2018.

The shift we are seeing in actioning consumer insights is using favored methods of data capture, such as website analytics, social media and e-commerce statistics, and including physical data capture methods, like point of sale, location and presence analytics, and social WiFi and guest WiFi analytics.

Download the free Customer Algorithm guide to use personalization and increase customer retention by 24%

For example, when a consumer visits a retailer website there are tools and tactics for tracking their journey through the website, how long they dwell on particular product pages, and send an email from the CRM database reminding consumers there is an un-purchased product in their shopping basket.

Retailers can have this same example acted upon in real-time from when a consumer walks into their store, what zone of the shop they lingered in the longest to when they leave, and how to use this behaviour data to send hyper-targeted customer segment and product marketing to not only prompt their purchase, but also improve their future experiences in store.

Purple have introduced the Customer Algorithm, a concept that highlights this combination and action of both the online and offline worlds of data in order to achieve a high level of personalization.

Where online metrics aren’t available to paint a picture of customers’ demographics, likes or dislikes, transforming your venue to capture the data already available is the future of the customer experience.

Download the free guide below and find out how using consumer insights to personalize communication can increase customer retention by 24%.

Click here to download

6th March 2018

Purple and Local Measure unveil new engagement connector at Cisco Live ANZ

Purple, the intelligent spaces company, and Local Measure, local customer intelligence experts, unveil the Local Measure Connector at Cisco Live ANZ. The Connector provides businesses across retail, hospitality, stadiums and entertainment and other industries, with a holistic approach to customer engagement.

The two global tech companies have been collaborating within the Cisco and Cisco Meraki partner community to introduce their real-time integration in the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre this week.

“We’re excited to be working with Local Measure to further amplify how businesses identify and engage their customers in both their online and offline spaces,” said Madelaine Coates, Regional Manager in APAC at Purple.

“Purple help businesses identify their previously unknown customers, understand their interests and behaviors, and develop personalized campaigns to elevate customer experience and return rates. Purple achieves this by using Cisco or Meraki to overlay in-store WiFi with analytics software and intelligent LogicFlow marketing tool to drive engagement in real-time,” said Coates.

What the new Connector will do is integrate this data with Local Measure’s engagement platform used to manage the online social conversations and influencers in their locations, and complete unique customer profiles with rule-based notifications for staff around customer activity on-site.

“Local Measure provides a lens to learn more about your on-site customers. Brands can engage with their customers’ public posts on social media and with customers who have connected to WiFi to drive personalization and unique customer experiences at scale,” said Jonathan Barouch, CEO at Local Measure.

“Through the connector with Purple, clients can have access to rich venue data and high-level reporting to complement Local Measure’s customer insights. It’s a powerful combination that we are very excited about,” said Barouch.

Coates further commented on the impact the combined set of insights, stating, “Businesses don’t realise they have one chance to capture 75% of their customers’ details or they won’t be seen again. Identifying who your customers are walking in your store is the first step to understanding your customer demographics, social interests and how they behave within your physical space.

“We’ve found that just by having WiFi and users logging in, it can increase return visits by 7% compared to visitors who don’t log into WiFi. This is because the personalized communication of timely, automated messages that are personalized to the specific customer segments. What you as a business can do then with Local Measure is complete the picture. Businesses can follow social media campaign reactions, monitor individual preferences, and notify staff on customer activity,” said Coates.

Purple overlays Cisco or Meraki to collect, gather and action the WiFi analytics and location data, while Local Measure operates on real-time integration into Cisco Spark and Cisco Vision digital signage for user generated content.

“The team are looking forward to the next level of creative engagement that businesses across all industries can achieve with the Purple Platform and Local Measure’s customer insight tools,” said Coates.

For further information about the Purple Platform and Local Measure Connector, visit Madelaine, Franck, and Zak from Purple at booth E29 between 6 – 9 of March.

2nd March 2018

Big data and the part it’s playing in ‘new retail’

Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, used the term ‘new retail’ in 2016 to describe a future that would blend online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain. The strategy aims to establish the business as a consumption solution provider, leveraging big data to enhance consumers’ shopping experiences.

And we haven’t had to wait long to see these plans begin to unfold.

Alibaba recently announced that they have set out plans to open 30 Hema supermarkets in Beijing this year as the e-commerce giant continues to develop and expand its ‘new retail’ strategy. The expansion will bring Beijing’s total stores to 35; providing consumers with greater access to its merged online and offline shopping experience.

The concept, which is a joint collaboration between Alibaba affiliates Hema, Tmall, bike-sharing platform Ofo and mapping and navigation services provider Autonavi, aims to create communities that are empowered by convenient, online-offline services driven by Alibaba.

There’s more – with Alibaba’s examples from the Double 11 Shopping Festival and other test case examples in China, here’s what the future of retail looks like:

A connection to an online payment system is established to enter the store. In Alibaba’s case, Alipay must be scanned to enter their smart stores.
Price tags are electronic and prices vary in real time based on certain factors.
Facial recognition technology is used to track customers. Discounts are offered on items they smile at or that they have searched for online.
Items can be purchased for later delivery. Home delivery details don’t need to be given as the system already has the purchaser’s home address on record. Delivery in major cities in China is already very fast taking from 15 minutes to 3 hours.
Customers can receive location-based store recommendations and discount notifications through their Taobao or Tmall app on their mobile devices, driving traffic to offline stores.
Customers can “try on” apparel and makeup items virtually, with the help of RFID (radio-frequency identification) and AR (augmented reality) technology.
Customers can scan images using AR technology to visit product listing page and collect coupons.
Consumers can purchase items using vending machines by scanning a QR code and they can also have the products delivered home with a few clicks.
There are also innovative technologies like a “Cloud Shelf” that stores purchasing behaviour data, facial recognition information, mobile gamification, etc.

It’s not just Alibaba transforming the retail industry. Last year, Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion with a vision to revolutionize the customer experience through delivering faster, more convenient in-store shopping.

Full details are yet to be confirmed but features could include a faster, tech-based checkout process, using Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ technology that launched last year in Amazon’s pilot Amazon Go store. High-tech sensors throughout the store completely eliminate the checkout process; a pain point for many shoppers.

Amazon’s prowess of data means even more tracking of how customers shop – including offline, if Amazon deploys the Amazon Go high-tech sensor technology to Whole Food stores. Customers’ mobiles would enable monitoring of how they move around the store, as well as when they check-in and out. Just as with online shopping, Amazon could track what items a customer has looked at, for how long, and which ones they decided to put in their basket. That is valuable data, not just for re-targeting and linking to Amazon Prime membership and Whole Foods’ customer rewards data, but it could also give Amazon great leverage with grocery suppliers.

Just recently, Amazon announced a new cash-back scheme; enticing Prime members to shop at Whole Foods. Prime members using the company’s Rewards Visa card will get 5 percent back on Whole Foods purchases. It is worth noting that this is the first time Amazon has extended its 5 percent back perk to a retailer.

These leading brands are gaining an edge through using the emergence of ‘new retail’ as an opportunity to build new consumer-focused models while at the same time improving the efficiency of their business operations.

To stay in the game, businesses must put customers at the center of their operations, with full consideration of the end-to-end customer experience; from awareness through to purchase and referrals. Businesses need to commit to embedding data and smart technology into their operations, because in order to place customers in the center, they need to know exactly who their customers are and understand their buying requirements.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple said: “The importance of capturing customer data in the physical world should not be underestimated; businesses that fail to do this will soon be left behind. Collecting key customer demographics and data around buying trends in a physical space enables businesses to personalize their marketing communications; engaging with consumers on a very relevant level. This type of engagement will be the difference between businesses that embrace these new technologies and businesses that don’t.”

28th November 2017

Is Black Friday still big for retail? Our analytics suggest it is.

Stomachs have barely settled from Thanksgiving dinner before Black Friday madness kicks off on the fourth Friday of November each year. Consumers line up Thursday night and in the early hours to get their hands on discounted TVs, clothing, gadgets and Christmas gifts battling thousands of other consumers literally diving into the day.

Retail market reports full of mixed reviews

As of April, there had been nine retail bankruptcies – the total of 2016 reached in four months, making 2017 the year of retail meltdown. The prediction for Black Friday 2017, therefore, was significantly lower in-store traffic, consumers perusing in-store but waiting to purchase online and a high volume of online sales. In other words, forecasts are heavily skewed towards websites crashing rather than swarming crowds for 24 hours, and the best news to come out of the weekend was that Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezo’s net worth skyrocketed to $100billion.

However, retail campaigns have been focussed on driving the in-store traffic online to promote their online platform. As a result of technology transforming the retail experience, consumers now know they have a plethora of options online and in-store throughout the year – rather than a flash sale where all their Christmas shopping and yearly big-ticket items are purchased within 24 hours.

The greying of retail?

Steven Barr, consumer markets leader at PwC, calls this the “greying” of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Consumers are enticed by deals and discounts all year, and now the previous once-off sales to kick off the holiday season are lasting weeks.

“Even though there are prolific Black Friday shoppers, 75% of these young consumers [between 13 and 35] will continue their holiday shopping well into the ensuing weeks, versus 69% for shoppers over 35,” said Steven.

Purple reports the numbers

Several of Purple’s retail customers have seen incredible growth in Black Friday visitors and conversion rates, where consumers passing by walk into the store.

One Purple customer, a globally celebrated cosmetics company, identified half a million consumers shopping in their store locations, and a 90% increase of consumers in-store on Black Friday compared to the day before. The company also saw a 92% increase in consumer conversions on Black Friday, compared to a 42% conversion rate in 2016.

Another Purple customer, a smart-city council in the UK, want to encourage consumers to visit their high street year-on-year. From 2016 to 2017, the council recorded an increase of almost 40% in Black Friday visitors – almost pushing their total to six-figure visitors in one day.

It’s not about in-store versus online – they work hand in hand

It’s not about in-store versus online opportunities to make a sale for consumers. If anything, the numbers are true signs of change in shopping experiences as 84% of consumers will shop online, and an 88% majority will shop in-store this season.

Macy’s were doing better than initial reports this year despite flashing news headlines. According to a spokesperson, more than 16,000 people were lined up outside the central Herald Square store the day before, and by 7am on Black Friday Macy’s had already sold 200,000 coats with a predicted 1 million coats, sweaters and jackets to have sold over the weekend.

Brick-and-mortar shops maintain their place as most popular place to shop on Black Friday weekend, according to a survey from Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. Over 48.2% of consumers shopped more in-store, 37% spent more time online and 15% of consumers split their purchases evenly between the two.

Brian Field, Senior Director of Advisory Services, commented brick-and-mortar traffic has been decreasing by less than 1% year-on-year.

“There has been a significant amount of debate surrounding the shifting importance of brick-and-mortar retail, and the fact that shopper visits remained intact on Black Friday illustrates that physical retail is still highly relevant and, when done right, profitable,” said Brian.

Marketing efforts have been executed with a goal to drive in-store traffic back to the websites, covering stores with advertisements and offers of getting a future 10% off online, while paying a tenner for unlimited next-day delivery and returns.

Turning the tides to get shoppers back in-store could be as easy as sending an email and switching the voucher for exclusive in-store offers and merchandise. You just need the right tools to engage and action the insights.

21st November 2017

Holiday shopping trends may be about Black Friday now, but you’re open 11 more months of the year too

One-third of consumers who plan to shop during the holiday season say they will brave Black Friday crowds this year, down from 51% in 2016 and 59% the year before, according to professional services giant, PwC. The latest holiday shopping trends study by PwC found there will be almost the same number of shoppers online as there are in-store in 2017, with a predicted $10billion in sales for this Black Friday weekend.

Capturing information online to inform digital marketing strategies and come up with quick campaign ideas is traditionally done through website traffic. However, retailers need to be thinking more about using the physical spaces of their stores to collect information about their consumers and how to better understand and engage them as Christmas draws nearer.

Five key findings from PwC’s consumer market research highlight how important it is to know your customers, understand their behaviours and adapt their marketing communications:

1. Make it easy on me
As the holiday season rolls in and social calendars get a boost there is little time left to think about getting gifts. Shoppers want to be told what to buy and for who, and it’s up to the retailers to communicate why their items are best suited to their needs.

Purple tip: Send a direct message or email to customers letting them know what’s in-store the moment they arrive based on their previous visit, and that the gifts can be paid for with their new Apple 10 Pay feature and delivered to stand out in a marathon of deals.

2. At the holidays and all year, a community of commerce
There are almost the same number of consumers online and there are in-store in 2017. Holiday shopping trends this season will reflect 88% of consumers shopping in-store, and 84% will shop online. While we watch the scales level out it’s important for retailers to be thinking about capturing the analytics of people being in-store as they would online. For those that aren’t it represents half the amount of data and insights their competitors may be collecting and actioning.

Purple tip: Cross-reference web traffic with foot traffic to identify the difference in holiday shopping trends and arrange store displays and signage to reflect the more popular items and purchasing habits.

3. Holiday habits uncover demographic preferences
The types of consumers visiting shopping malls vary over the holiday period. There are some who step into a shopping centre for the first time that year and others who have been scoping store layouts for weeks with a list ready to go. According to PwC, consumers over 35 plan to spend more than 60% of their holiday budget on family, and while travel ranks high on millennials’ wish lists, Gen X consumers and Boomers are more likely to buy gifts of travel for themselves.

Purple tip: Have targeted messaging ready to go for the particular holiday consumer segments and send “buying gifts is hard – so treat yourself”, “your sister will love this!” or “your husband will not believe his eyes!” campaigns to the right people at the right time.

4. Generous millennial dads put family first
Point number one ties in with point number four – you have to know your customers, understand their behaviour and use these insights to communicate effectively. Millennial dads will not only spend more on their families (63%) than other consumers (57%), they are three-times more likely to shop via smart home technology. In fact, it seems millennial dads are very tech-savvy shoppers, paying via smartphones at almost three-times the rate of other consumers and four-times by wearable technology.

Purple tip: Don’t send a blast email with the same catalogue deals and new kids toys to consumers who might be parents. Mix it up by listing the top five items bought via Google’s Alexa or Echo and that all stores accept Apple and Android Pay – just in time for Black Friday sales and early enough before the real Christmas crowds take over.

5. Goodbye traditional advertising and hello influencers
Consumers under the age of 35 have had easy access to peer reviews, whether they be as a Facebook message, a recommendation on LinkedIn, an image on Instagram or as part of a Pinterest board with the “top 10 best” of the best. Brand loyalty matters less than it does to older consumers, trusting friends and family the most with traditional advertising taking a stumble in the eyes of marketing. Holiday shopping trends indicate they are on the hunt for insights about products with little patience for stories that don’t speak directly to them.

Purple tip: Identify the popular websites and social media platforms of consumers while they are in-store to tailor digital campaigns. With these incredible insights, marketing can engage the right social influencers online to build excitement around gifts this year.

9th November 2017

How our retail marketing campaign tool knew there was something #UnderTheBed

Countdowns with gin advent calendars and wish lists a mile long bring joy to adults and children each year for Christmas. Tis (almost) the season to be jolly and take care of last minute good deeds to secure your place on the Nice List. Although, John Lewis’ London Canary Wharf store may have bought themselves a few pieces of coal this year having revealed the creature under the bed three days early.

John Lewis leaked #UnderTheBed toy

Christmas ad campaigns have become a highly anticipated part of Christmas cheer. Marketing departments spend the whole year and multi-million pound budgets to get a moment like Buster the Boxer. Buster took the social world by storm last year with his droopy eyes and trampoline, engaging families beyond the screen and into the hearts of millions.

Creating a retail marketing campaign to build excitement, and then keep fans excited after the ads drop is a mammoth task in the competitive retail market. With the latest #UnderTheBed campaign we wonder if John Lewis will be able to track where the creature, and their customers who will come flooding into their department stores looking for it, have been. At Purple, we know which particular corner the creature favours under the bed, how long it’s been there waiting and even if it’s a return visitor.

But how did we know something was under the bed?

Heat mapping analytics and proximity marketing tracks the movement of customers as they move through retail stores and shopping malls. By using the free WiFi throughout the store to overlay analytics software, brands can draw invisible lines around specific areas of their venue and identify behaviour patterns within that space, effectively allocate business resources and gauge what purchases they are considering.

As part of a retail marketing campaign tool, brands can also design a fully branded splash page and redirect customers to landing pages and social media accounts while they are in-store to grow online followers.

How to use heat mapping in your retail marketing campaign

John Lewis could have heat mapped their store to find the hotspots in each department where lots of customers walk by to place a colourful bed with a small pair of eyes peeking out from under the duvet.

With the proximity marketing tool, customers could be sent a real-time update of the advert while they are in-store, including exclusive additional clips of the cuddly creature with a splash page to direct them to a competition to meet or win a cuddly toy.

When customers leave the department store they can be sent a follow up survey of how they found their experience in-store and gain rich, timely feedback about the campaign. Or, an email about a particular product they hovered by for more than 10 minutes considering their purchase.

So not only are visitors entertained by being connected to the Internet, they would remain engaged in the story beyond the screen, and learn to anticipate next year’s campaign before New Years has come to pass.

Read more about Purple’s WiFi marketing features:

• Optimize windows displays
• Validate product placement
• A/B test new store concepts with clear visual actions