Tag: retail

IPG Media Lab Brings Digitally-Enhanced Retail Experiences To NYX Flagship Store At Union Square

Posted on by Lab Team

This morning, NYX Professional Makeup opened their first-ever flagship store in Union Square, New York City. A huge line of fans and makeup enthusiasts waited for hours to be among the first to see – and touch – the store, which combines innovative technology with a hands-on educational environment to provide consumers with first-of-its-kind digitally-enhanced makeup experiences.

These in-store retail experiences were created by IPG Media Lab, who has been working closely with the NYX team for well over a year. Some of these experiences – such as the exclusive in-store Beauty Bar which is an interactive makeup station featuring custom video tutorials, a trending wall featuring UGC content centering around the latest looks, and a unique shopping tool which allows users to scan a product and bring up photos of what that specific shade looks like on real people – have been already available in recently opened NYX stores. A Palette Bar experience educates users on how to build an eyeshadow palette and, in this flagship store, also guides users to their chosen colors with pink and white wayfinding LED lights.

Unique to the Union Square store are three brand-new experiences, including a Brush Bar and a Lash Bar, each of which help demystify subjects consumers find especially challenging. Users don’t need to leave that knowledge in the store, however. They can also choose which of the exclusive video tutorials they’d like to have at home for future reference.

The centerpiece of the Union Square store, however, is Colorcast, an eye-grabbing sculpture made from 48 cascading iPads. The Lab collaborated with Brooklyn-based Red Paper Heart to design this dramatic interactive installation, which is also a work of art. The digital sculpture scans the colors of your outfit and reflects back the makeup artistry that feature those shades. Shoppers will also be able to filter the community content based on hair color, eye color, or iconic NYX products.

nyx-colorcast-digital-sculpture
NYX Colorcast

The NYC flagship store also features a Masterclass area where influencers and experts teach classes on makeup artistry. Through a combination of in-store classes and digital classes, NYX’s goal is to help shoppers embrace their personal style and give them the tools and knowledge to express their own artistry. 

nyx-masterclass-space
NYX Masterclass space

The NYX NYC flagship store is located at 41 Union Square West, New York City. Opening weekend features meet-and-greets with some of today’s most popular beauty influencers from YouTube and Instagram, including Kandyee Johnson and Mac Daddy as well as exciting prizes and limited-edition collectibles for customers.

Come by and check out what the future of beauty retail looks like!

 

Why Walmart Is Investing $50 Million In A Chinese Grocery Delivery Startup

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Walmart announced on Friday that it is investing $50 million in Chinese online grocery and delivery startup New Dada, a joint venture part-owned by JD.com, Walmart’s strategic ecommerce partner in China. The investment in New Dada, which operates in over 300 Chinese cities and serves 25 million customers, will help Wal-Mart target Chinese shoppers with faster delivery in a highly competitive online grocery market.

What Brands Should Do
Walmart has been leveraging digital tools to modernize its retail experience in order to better compete with its ecommerce rivals. The retail giant rolled out a mobile payment app in the U.S. this summer and partnered with Uber and Lyft for testing on-demand grocery service in Denver and Phoenix. This investment marks a significant step in Walmart’s ecommerce expansion in China so as to better compete with local competitors. Retailers should take a cue from the retail giant and start testing similar on-demand programs to meet the increasing consumer demand for convenience.

To learn more on what retailers can do to reach today’s connected shoppers across sales channels, check out the Boundless Retail section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Reuters

Ralph Lauren Built An Interactive Handbag Customization Salon

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Friday, fashion retailer Ralph Lauren unveiled a new flagship shop in L.A. that comes with an interactive handbag salon, allowing shoppers to personalize their handbag orders in colors, materials, and monograms. Each handbag in the store is tagged with an RFID chip that automatically carries over product specifications to a touchscreen when a customer brings a bag to the salon to start their customization.

What Retailers Should Do
By focusing on personalization and offering a seamless in-store experience, Ralph Lauren’s new store provides a great example of how retailers can modernize their retail experience and attract shoppers to visit. With more and more consumers choosing the convenience of online shopping over physical stores, brick-and-mortar retailers need to take the initiative in creating in-store experiences that provide added value for customers.

 

Source LA Times

Designer Brands Are Turning To On-Demand Fashion Rental Services For Data

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Designer fashion brands are increasingly turning to on-demand rental services like Rent the Runway and Armarium to reach new customers and figure out what they like. By tapping into the customer data from on-demand services, designer brands are able to detect trendy items and designs of the season and customize part of their collections. Working with rental services also helps designers appeal to their users, who typically have yet to develop brand loyalty to any particular fashion brand and therefore represent a valuable audience segment for brands to target.

What Brands Should Do
The ongoing collaboration between designer brands and fashion rental services highlights one way brands can leverage the booming popularity of on-demand services to expand their audience reach and gather customer insights. More brands can benefit from similar collaborations by enabling a wider audience to sample their products and services and getting a better read on their preferences.

To learn more about how brands can make use of the digital tools available to reach shoppers across channels, check out the Boundless Retail section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Glossy

How Home Depot And The Fragrance Outlet Drive In-Store Sales With Mobile Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Both Home Depot and The Fragrance Outlet are seeing positive results using mobile ads to drive in-store purchases, but their specific approaches differ. Home Depot leverages Google’s location-based search ads to target online shoppers that are interested in gardening tools. The ads suggest the nearest Home Depot locations based on where customers are. Home Depot reported that 36% of their in-store revenue during peak hours was driven by mobile, resulting in an eight-times increase in ROI from mobile display ads in the past year.

The Fragrance Outlet, on the other hand, is using in-store beacons to attract customers to try perfume samples and drive sales. Working with Shopkick, the retail chain is installing beacons at some of its 100 locations to push its rewards program by offering free samples to Shopkick users.

What Retailers Should Do
Despite their different approaches, both retailers are leveraging mobile technologies to successfully target shoppers on a hyperlocal level. A recent survey by SessionM revealed that 90% of retail shoppers today are using their smartphones in stores. Therefore, it would be a huge missed opportunity if retailers are not using location-based ads or proximity-triggered offers to reach shoppers and drive sales.  

 

Sources: Think With Google & GeoMarketing

Facebook Helps Retailers Sync Ads With Local Inventory

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Tuesday, Facebook announced a new ad product called “dynamic ads for retail” that are designed to only appear when the advertised product is actually in stock at local stores. They allow retailers to plug in brick-and-mortar inventory and serve ads for products that are available at a location close to the users seeing them. Retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Argos, Macy’s, Target, and Williams-Sonoma are currently testing this new ad product, which Facebook says will be rolled out to more brands in the coming weeks.

What Retailers Should Do
This ad product offers retailers a great way to sync up their local inventories with their Facebook campaigns, bridging the gap between physical availability and digital promotions. Retailers should take advantage of this location-based, dynamic ad product to reach shoppers in a more effective way.

To learn more about how retailers can make use of the digital tools available to reach shoppers across platforms, check out the Boundless Retail section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: AdWeek

Estimote Launches Mirror To Turn Screens Into Beacon-Responsive Displays

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Beacon tech startup Estimote unveiled an interesting new product called Mirror that promises to turn any screen into a beacon-responsive one that displays personalized content. Mirror, which Estimote claims to be the world’s first video-enabled beacon, is a dongle that plugs into a USB or HDMI port on a video screen and communicates with apps that support Estimote’s SDK. This way, Mirror can detect when users of such apps are nearby and prompt the screen to show personalized content.

Moreover, Mirror can also communicate with Estimote Stickers, allowing it to reach users with no Estimote beacon-supported app on their phones. For example, when a customer picks up an item embedded with an Estimote Sticker, the Mirror-equipped screens can immediately respond by displaying information about said item.

What Brands Need To Do
This video beacon product opens new possibilities for brands to leverage proximity and mobile technologies to create a more engaging and personalized experience at stores, venues, and events. Retailers, for instance, can take advantage of Estimote Mirror to offer customers a helpful and interactive in-store experience. Other brands should consider employing it at events to deliver brand messages in a customizable and contextual way.

The Lab has been closely involved in introducing beacon technology to marketers for the past few years. If you’d like to learn more about the marketing use cases of beacons and other proximity technology, please reach out to our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) and schedule a visit to the Lab.  

 

Source: VentureBeat

Header image courtesy of Estimote’s YouTube Video

Ted Baker Taps Google Voice For An Interactive In-Store Experience

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Fashion retailer Ted Baker is teaming up with Google for a voice-activated, in-store experience that leverages Google Voice to engage with shoppers. Customers visiting Ted Baker stores can open the Google Voice app, utter the phrases printed on the store windows, and receive clues to unlock rewards. The feature is geo-fenced so only shoppers in Ted Baker stores will have access to it. Besides this interactive experience, Ted Baker also created a shoppable film which will be distributed through retail partners and department stores to play on their websites.

What Brands Need To Do
By tapping into the voice activation enabled by Google Voice, Ted Baker devised a fun way to engage with customers and reward them for visiting stores. Together with the shoppable film, this initiative is illustrative of the fashion retailer’s willingness to venture beyond traditional marketing channels and explore newer forms of marketing. At a time when consumers are growing tired of ads and increasingly turning to ad-free services and ad-blockers, brands need to experiment with new approaches such as interactive store experiences and shoppable content to effectively reach their audience.

The Lab has extensive experience in designing interactive store experiences for beauty and fashion brands to engage customers. Our recent work with NYX Cosmetics includes a digital beauty bar that incorporates social and mobile elements into a sampling experience. If you’d like to advance your strategy to reach connected shoppers, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: Glossy

New Google Search Ad Wants You To “Shop The Look”

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has started testing a new search ad format that aims to sell mobile shoppers on curated looks. Dubbed “shop the look,” the new ad format is designed to appear when users search for broad queries such as “wedding outfit” or “cocktail attire,” and present them with buyable looks sourced from a network of partners, including Curalate, LIKEtoKNOW.it, and Yahoo-owned Polyvore.

What Brands Need To Do
Earlier this summer, Google introduced a new Showcase Shopping ad format that surfaces shoppable items when users search for apparel keywords. As the search giant continues to improve its buyable ad products and making them more visually driven, retailers and fashion brands should seize the opportunity presented by these new ad products and leverage them to reach online shoppers.

 

Source: Search Engine Land

Facebook Adds An Offers Tab For Digital Coupons

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook continues to dive deeper into ecommerce as the social network updates its existing Offers product for saving digital coupons. Now Facebook users can save digital coupons they collect from Facebook Pages and ads to an Offers tab. Facebook will remind users via push notifications when an offer is nearing its expiration date. The update also grants brands more control over who can see an offer ad by using Facebook’s ad-targeting options.

What Brands Need To Do
As more and more consumers now shopping online and with their smartphones in store, leveraging smartphone-enabled technologies such as mobile payment and digital coupons will make for a crucial part of the consumer experience. The new Offers features give users more incentives to shop with Facebook in stores and online. For brands looking to experiment with social commerce, Facebook Offer and its affiliate ad products should be a good place to start.

For more information on why brands should adopt an omnichannel approach, check out the Boundless Retail section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: AdWeek