Tag: retail

Neiman Marcus Adds Visual Search To Its App For Better Discovery

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Luxury department store Neiman Marcus has teamed up with Slyce, a product-discovery platform, to allow users of its retail app to search for items with images instead of texts. Shoppers can either upload a photo from their phone or snap one of a certain product, and Neiman Marcus’ branded app will serve up both the exact item and some similar ones that the retailer carries.

What Brands Should Do
Visual search has long been a great breakthrough point for retail and ecommerce brands seeking to connect their physical and digital assets. A recent example would be Amazon’s great “Firefly” feature on its poorly-received Fire Phone, which promises to identify any object in the real world and facilitate buying through Amazon. For retailers, visual search could lead to better product discovery, boosting sales while also providing customers a better in-store experience.

Source: Digiday

Apple Partners With PayAnywhere To Further Expand Apple Pay

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple has struck a new partnership with PayAnywhere, a POS solution provider that serves more than 300,000 locations around the United States. As part of the partnership, the latest version of the PayAnywhere card reader will also be sold in all Apple Stores.

What Brands Should Do
This new partnership undoubtedly broadens Apple Pay’s reach, which in turn could only help the mass adoption of Apple’s mobile payment. For brands, especially those in retail, this means now is the time to start incorporating your existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems, offering your customer a frictionless shopping experience. To promote Apple Pay usage, PayAnywhere is also offering merchants $5,000 worth of free Apple Pay transaction processing, something that SMBs and independent merchants could take advantage of.

Source: TechCrunch

PayPal Acquires Mobile Commerce Startup Modest

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Earlier today, PayPal announced its acquisition of mobile commerce platform Modest for an undisclosed amount. This marks PayPal’s first acquisition since its split from eBay and signals the digital payment company’s ambition in diving deeper into ecommerce. Modest’s team and capabilities, which includes helping online businesses create their own app or integrate their stores within existing apps, and helping merchants add “buy buttons” into their social channels, will be integrated within PayPal’s Braintree platform, a move which the team described as a “cheat code” to get huge scale.

What Brands Should Do
As more and more consumers warm up to mobile commerce, especially on social channels, brands have to be quick to respond to shifting online shopping behaviors. For example, Pinterest’s newly introduced “Buyable Pins” feature, which uses the Braintree platform, allows users to easily buy products pinned from retailers such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus with just a few taps. For brands that aim to create better experiences for their customers on digital platforms, this kind of “contextual commerce” powered by the likes of Modest would be an interesting and potentially rewarding option to explore.

 

Source: VentutreBeat

Uber Attempts To Infiltrate Ecommerce Via Return Services

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Leading ride-hailing app Uber is aiming to infiltrate ecommerce space with a new “Return Service”, which helps busy and lazy online shoppers to easily mail back the purchases they wish to return without actually going to the post office or UPS outpost. As an extension of its existing UberRush service in Manhattan, Uber is offering the first return for free, and charges each subsequent pickup a $4 flat fee.

What Brands Can Do
Uber has always been ambitious in expanding its platform’s reach into new territories, including healthcare, food delivery, and even urban planning. Recent reports also suggest that it is working to develop a merchant delivery program for same-day delivery of goods powered by UberRush couriers and Uber drivers. For retail brands, especially the smaller ones that operate locally and does not have the resources to develop their own logistical services, Uber’s recent entry into the ecommerce space could turn out to be a great opportunity to seize and leverage into offering a better customer experience.

 

Sources: Uber Newsroom

Square To Help Retailers And SMBs Adopt New Payment System

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Mobile payment platform and POS device maker Square is looking to speed up adoption rate of the new EMV chip-and-PIN terminals, promising to cover any faulty charges if the business has already pre-ordered its latest card reader, set to ship this fall. While obviously hoping to convert some businesses to Square’s platform in the process, this offer could help some small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to have a smooth transition to the new POS terminals.

What Brands Should Do
For security purposes, businesses that are still using the old magnetic swipe-and-sign system are mandated to upgrade to the new chip-and-PIN EMV payment system by October. For retail brands and small business owners that haven’t been aware of this imminent change, now would be time to make the switch, and try out the benefits digital POS terminals can bring, in terms of improved security, convenience, as well as consumer data some of the digital POS platforms can gather.

 

Source: Ars Technica

Retailers To Begin Public Tests of CurrentC Mobile Payment System App

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Almost two years since its inception, the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a consortium made up by big-name retailers and restaurants including Wal-Mart, Target, and Darden Restaurants is finally ready to begin the first public tests of CurrentC mobile payment app, which reportedly won’t launch this year.

What Brands Should Do
Because CurrentC took so long to get ready, the initial two years of MCX’s exclusivity deal with its members to block adoption of competitors like Apple Pay is set to expire soon. Indeed, Rite Aid, a member of the consortium, has announced its decision to start accepting Apple Pay and Google Wallet as soon as this weekend. With more and more consumers starting to incorporate their mobile devices into their shopping experience, brands seeking stay ahead of the digital curve need to start developing a digital payment strategy and incorporating existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal

Ecommerce Giants Continue Move Into Physical Retail Space

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon has signed a lease for a prime warehouse formerly used by Tesco as a distribution center, in preparation for the imminent U.K. launch of its grocery delivery service. Similarly, Alibaba announced a $4.5 billion investment in Suning, a major electronics retailer in China, in hopes of connecting online shoppers with physical stores and further expanding its delivery network.

What Brands Should Do
As the traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are going online and building out their digital assets, some ecommerce brands, including Warby Parker and Casper, have been venturing into physical retail to take advantage of the benefits that physical storefronts offer. For digital-native brands seeking faster delivery service or even to expand beyond ecommerce, eclipsing the existing retail and logistical infrastructure via either partnerships or acquisitions would be a good place to start.

Source: The WSJ & The Guardian

RIte Aid To Start Accepting Mobile Payments Including Apple Pay

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
National drugstore chain Rite Aid will start accepting both Apple Pay and Google Wallet this upcoming Saturday in all its 4,600 stores across the country. The company also plans to accept Google’s forthcoming Android Pay, as well as tap-to-pay credit cards.

What Brands Should Do
Despite being a member of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium that backs its own mobile payment system CurrentC which aims to compete with the likes of Apple Pay, Rite Aid has seemingly realized the importance of giving customers the option to use their prefered mobile payment method. Best Buy, also a member of MCX, announced a similar decision earlier this year. Such newfound acceptance among the national retailers will no doubt furher boost the adoption rate of mobile payments. For brands that wish to stay ahead of the digital curve, now would be the time to start developing a digital payment strategy and incorporating existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems.

 

Source: New York Times

The Business Use Case For Smart Home Appliances

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Door sensors have long been a common item in smart home installations for security and surveillance purposes. Now a Syracuse-based startup named Density is putting them to work for businesses. The company offers a smart door sensor that monitors the real-time population of places, such as restaurants, bars, gyms, and retail centers, and shares the information via the cloud on its mobile apps. It also provides businesses with a “Requested” service that will allow customers to request a discount once a certain low-traffic threshold is reached.

What Brands Can Do
Placed in storefront entrances, the Density sensor can measure the in- and outflow of people—giving business owners and retail brands a great amount of data on foot traffic and producing insights that can turn into smarter business planning. More importantly, Density points to the undervalued versatility of the connected devices, the majority of which are currently being developed for smart home automation. As the Internet of Things continues to evolve, we expect more business-oriented use cases for such gadgets to pop up, improving and streamlining the in-store experience to the benefits of both brands and customers.

 

Source: PSFK

Header image courtesy of Density

Target Launches Retail Beacon Program In 50 Stores

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Yesterday, national retail chain Target announced that it would begin testing beacon technology in 50 of its stores across the country. The company plans to use the technology to send offers and customized recommendations to customers who opt-in for the beacon-triggered notifications within the Target iOS app, and soon on Android.

What Brands Should Do
Retail and CPG brands can benefit a lot from the timely reminders and personalized offers that beacon enables. It would be smart for those brands to get on board early with the test program to start experimenting with this hyperlocal marketing tool. It’s also crucial for brands that have Target as a sales channel to make good use of the in-store behavioral data the beacon program could provide so as to better understand shoppers.

 

Source: Buzzfeed

Image courtesy of Target.com