July 2, 2015
Penney thinks app is perfect match for customers
When shoppers see a piece of clothing through a store window that is way out of their price range, they now have a quick way to find and buy the nearest possible cheap facsimile — that is, if it is available at J.C. Penney. The retailer recently rolled out a feature for its iPhone shopping app that allows shoppers to take pictures of clothing and then search jcpenney.com for an item available on the site that appears closest to the one in the image.
According to a Forbes.com article, customers can take a photo of an item they see in real life, in another catalog, or even scan a barcode or QR code and run it through the app to produce a result from Penney’s web store. The department store claims its image search functions more quickly and effectively than others offered by companies including Macy’s and eBay. Penney plans to make the image search feature available for its Android app in the near future.
The department store chain’s recent moves into tech-savvy territory have been somewhat controversial. In May, Penney partnered with Apple to create one of the first shopping apps for the Apple Watch. The move was considered off-brand by some, given that the Apple Watch is a high-priced item targeted at a younger demographic and Penney is generally seen as a discount retailer with a less tech-enabled customer base.
Source: jcpenney.com
The Washington Post, however, reported in May that half of Penney’s 86 million customers use iPhones, perhaps disproving the notion that shopping for discounts on clothing corresponds to eschewing higher-end tech purchases, especially on items as ubiquitous as smartphones.
Building features like image search into its shopping app also appears to be in keeping with the company’s focus on its customers in the post-Ron Johnson era. On Penney’s Q1 2015 earnings call, CEO Mike Ullman said, "We prefer obviously to have success across all channels, but ultimately it’s the omnichannel customer that’s going to be the best customer for us." Marvin Ellison, Penney’s president, will replace Mr. Ullman as CEO next month.
BrainTrust
Dick Seesel
Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC
Bob Phibbs
President/CEO, The Retail Doctor
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Will mobile image search and product matching help drive sales for J.C. Penney? Do you think retailers’ use of this technology will become commonplace in the years ahead?
Poll
I put this into the “it can’t hurt” category, like the J.C. Penney test with the Apple Watch. It’s likely that at least some of those millions of J.C. Penney customers carrying iPhones will find this to be a useful tool, and that it will drive some sales. There is a downside risk to J.C. Penney, however: How closely will the products in its own assortment mirror the designer goods being checked? Will there be a false promise of equivalent fit, finish and quality raised by the tool?
At this point, I’d say it couldn’t hurt.
If we become a nation of knockoffs it could work, but does a fashionista really want to have a cheap copy of something they saw on someone else?
I’d think they’d want to be first with the look, and that would be at the fast fashion stores like H&M (where I saw a promotion: three dresses for $12). How anyone, scratch that, why anyone wants to play in that space is beyond me.
This will become more popular, however J.C. Penney has some hurdles to overcome: 1. Something similar has to be available at J.C. Penney. 2. It’s at J.C. Penney. Good luck in getting someone under 55 who knows what J.C. Penney is. Imagine the disappointment after driving all the way out the mall only to find out they either don’t have an item in stock or it’s buried someplace in their piles of rummage.
That app better be able to tell you if it’s in stock, give details on the quality, manufacturer, country of origin and the GPS coordinates of the item. Otherwise this will just be another Sears-esque idea that is soon forgotten.
Anything Penney’s does can’t hurt. So give it a whirl and let’s see what sticks.
Who knows if will work for sure? But the customers will definitely vote on it. It won’t take very long to see how and whether they use it.
But the real story here may be more about J.C. Penney itself. It desperately needs a turnaround strategy and ways to make itself relevant to younger customers.
The telling statement in this whole article is the quote from Marvin Ellison: “ultimately it’s the omnichannel customer that’s going to be the best customer for us.”
Even if J.C. Penney’s search and match app isn’t quite right, the c-suite leadership now seems to have the mission right in terms of reaching today’s omnichannel shopper.
If it works reasonably well in finding matching products it could definitely catch the attention of customers young and old. I’m assuming that it takes you directly to their website so you could click and buy the similar item using Apple Pay and have it en route to your home, preferably with free shipping, in no time flat.
I agree with those before me who said it can’t hurt. Penney is not promising that it will be an exact match but only that it will be the closest that they can get.
Even if the customers find that only 50 percent (or pick any number above 15 percent) of the items are close enough it could drive business that Penney might not have had before.
The worst case is that more people are looking at Penney as a POTENTIAL place to shop.
This is a very difficult thing to do without a massive, accurate database. This doesn’t exist in the retail world so the accuracy of the matches will probably not be good and that is the problem. When people don’t get the results they want, they will not trust it.
This is a great marketing initiative though. Get more people to download the app.
If JCPenney were known for a more hip collection of merchandise, I would say go for it. Problem is, they aren’t.
The person who might be looking for a cheaper version of some fashion is most likely looking at something that is considered hip, couture, in vogue? Is that really what JCPenney can provide?
This is almost like what Amazon does when they suggest other items — “People who bought that, also bought this.” Rather than the up-sell or cross-sell, this is the alternative-sell. This can work especially well for the lower priced retailer with more “value conscious” merchandise that compares to more expensive offerings.
The app could be far more beneficial to Penney than to its customers. The data collected could give its merchandisers a rare glimpse into the fashions that its customers fancy. Surely, Penney won’t forfeit the opportunity.
Like everyone else here, my thought was “can’t hurt, might help” (at least assuming it works better than Google Photos). So it might help in the sense that many small things add up, or that they chance upon “the big one”.
Or maybe it will go nowhere…but at least they don’t seem to be going backward.
Image-search apps set up kind of a fashion-trend cascade effect.
Macy’s announced a similar feature late last year. Of course the idea there is to capture an image of a high-fashion garment and find a similar look at Macy’s at a more economical cost.
At JCP, the idea seems to be about searching for items that resemble full-price department store apparel, in order to locate a rendition at Penney’s an even lower price point.
The shopper behavior data revealed by use of these apps (see, snap, search, select) might prove highly illuminating to the merchandising pros. Quite a bonus, if they really put it to use.
I imagine the solutions apply machine-learning methods to deliver image results that resemble the user’s snapshot. Pretty useful for clothes, shoes or even home furnishings. Not so much for tech products, consumables or hardware.
It’s a nice idea, but it will only work out if J.C. Penney has the appropriate inventory available. I think this technology has great potential to get consumers shopping. However, if Penney can’t match items, shoppers will delete the app faster than they downloaded it.
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I put this into the “it can’t hurt” category, like the J.C. Penney test with the Apple Watch. It’s likely that at least some of those millions of J.C. Penney customers carrying iPhones will find this to be a useful tool, and that it will drive some sales. There is a downside risk to J.C. Penney, however: How closely will the products in its own assortment mirror the designer goods being checked? Will there be a false promise of equivalent fit, finish and quality raised by the tool?
At this point, I’d say it couldn’t hurt.
If we become a nation of knockoffs it could work, but does a fashionista really want to have a cheap copy of something they saw on someone else?
I’d think they’d want to be first with the look, and that would be at the fast fashion stores like H&M (where I saw a promotion: three dresses for $12). How anyone, scratch that, why anyone wants to play in that space is beyond me.
This will become more popular, however J.C. Penney has some hurdles to overcome: 1. Something similar has to be available at J.C. Penney. 2. It’s at J.C. Penney. Good luck in getting someone under 55 who knows what J.C. Penney is. Imagine the disappointment after driving all the way out the mall only to find out they either don’t have an item in stock or it’s buried someplace in their piles of rummage.
That app better be able to tell you if it’s in stock, give details on the quality, manufacturer, country of origin and the GPS coordinates of the item. Otherwise this will just be another Sears-esque idea that is soon forgotten.
Anything Penney’s does can’t hurt. So give it a whirl and let’s see what sticks.
Who knows if will work for sure? But the customers will definitely vote on it. It won’t take very long to see how and whether they use it.
But the real story here may be more about J.C. Penney itself. It desperately needs a turnaround strategy and ways to make itself relevant to younger customers.
The telling statement in this whole article is the quote from Marvin Ellison: “ultimately it’s the omnichannel customer that’s going to be the best customer for us.”
Even if J.C. Penney’s search and match app isn’t quite right, the c-suite leadership now seems to have the mission right in terms of reaching today’s omnichannel shopper.
If it works reasonably well in finding matching products it could definitely catch the attention of customers young and old. I’m assuming that it takes you directly to their website so you could click and buy the similar item using Apple Pay and have it en route to your home, preferably with free shipping, in no time flat.
I agree with those before me who said it can’t hurt. Penney is not promising that it will be an exact match but only that it will be the closest that they can get.
Even if the customers find that only 50 percent (or pick any number above 15 percent) of the items are close enough it could drive business that Penney might not have had before.
The worst case is that more people are looking at Penney as a POTENTIAL place to shop.
This is a very difficult thing to do without a massive, accurate database. This doesn’t exist in the retail world so the accuracy of the matches will probably not be good and that is the problem. When people don’t get the results they want, they will not trust it.
This is a great marketing initiative though. Get more people to download the app.
If JCPenney were known for a more hip collection of merchandise, I would say go for it. Problem is, they aren’t.
The person who might be looking for a cheaper version of some fashion is most likely looking at something that is considered hip, couture, in vogue? Is that really what JCPenney can provide?
This is almost like what Amazon does when they suggest other items — “People who bought that, also bought this.” Rather than the up-sell or cross-sell, this is the alternative-sell. This can work especially well for the lower priced retailer with more “value conscious” merchandise that compares to more expensive offerings.
The app could be far more beneficial to Penney than to its customers. The data collected could give its merchandisers a rare glimpse into the fashions that its customers fancy. Surely, Penney won’t forfeit the opportunity.
Like everyone else here, my thought was “can’t hurt, might help” (at least assuming it works better than Google Photos). So it might help in the sense that many small things add up, or that they chance upon “the big one”.
Or maybe it will go nowhere…but at least they don’t seem to be going backward.
Image-search apps set up kind of a fashion-trend cascade effect.
Macy’s announced a similar feature late last year. Of course the idea there is to capture an image of a high-fashion garment and find a similar look at Macy’s at a more economical cost.
At JCP, the idea seems to be about searching for items that resemble full-price department store apparel, in order to locate a rendition at Penney’s an even lower price point.
The shopper behavior data revealed by use of these apps (see, snap, search, select) might prove highly illuminating to the merchandising pros. Quite a bonus, if they really put it to use.
I imagine the solutions apply machine-learning methods to deliver image results that resemble the user’s snapshot. Pretty useful for clothes, shoes or even home furnishings. Not so much for tech products, consumables or hardware.
It’s a nice idea, but it will only work out if J.C. Penney has the appropriate inventory available. I think this technology has great potential to get consumers shopping. However, if Penney can’t match items, shoppers will delete the app faster than they downloaded it.