SXSW: How can we reboot the beacon to serve, not assault?


SXSW kicked off last Friday with a bevy of retail experts sharing their points of view on retail’s current and present future. MediaPost hosted a notable "OMMA @ SXSW" event in which the topic "Beacons, M-Pay and The Great Shopper Reboot" was covered. I served as moderator/contributor with panelists Daniel Gutwein, director of retail analytics, Intel; Sean Bartlett, director of digital experience, product, & omni-channel integration, Lowe’s; and Ryan Bonifacino, SVP, digital, Alex and Ani.
A key theme to the panel was how technologies such as beacons have extraordinarily powerful potential for morphing the retail experience, but that the industry should not consider beacons as tools to "take back control" of the shopper experience. Rather, we should be thinking about how to make their experience better with them.
Lowe’s talked about how they use real-time inventory tracking and have developed an app so their staff can capture live conversations with consumers about projects, build a shopping list of what the consumer needs, and then track their purchase behavior. They are also hyper focused on "not making a customer start over" via technology.
Intel added on with the video of an iKeg that they helped create, which monitors tap and keg "velocity" and provides a wealth of real time data about what beer is being drunk, at what time, in what bar, at what speed, etc. This prevents out of stocks while ensuring a fresh draught, and provides a sneak peek into how IoT (Internet of Things) could better support retail.
Alex and Ani went on to share how they put a "P&L to digital" and how beacons are used to bridge retail and digital. A customer can see a product "in the wild" (i.e., in-store) and then view it with deeper product information on their device. The data behind the scenes is registered to the personal information and the loop is closed for the shopper to purchase now or at their leisure on their device.
But the dark side of beacons is the other range of applications, whereby people walking by stores or spots in the store are hit up with selling messages or shopper data is streamed without public notification or buy-in. Plenty of conversation centered around tracking elements of people’s bodies, not their personal ID, then creating value exchange for the shopper to opt in for more. An example would be linking SKUs to video content in-store so that someone could wave their phone over a beacon to see an instant feed of how that product is worn/accessorized or view shopper reviews on their phone.
- Beacons, M-Pay and The Great Shopper Reboot SXSW Session (streamed recording) – Ustream.tv
- Focus Groups Can’t Predict Success – MediaPost
- The Digital Frontier- Chasing the Shopper In the Wild at SXSW Interactive – AV Network
In what ways can retailers use beacons to serve shoppers rather than seize control of the experience? What other examples are out there of retailers doing this effectively, getting buy-in and, thus, great shopper data?
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20 Comments on "SXSW: How can we reboot the beacon to serve, not assault?"
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I don’t know of any examples of retailers using beacons effectively. Most examples of in-store messages I have seen or read about involve providing more product information, ads or a coupon. If I need more information beacons could be helpful, but if that is all that is available when using this technology it is not helpful. Many people are in a hurry when shopping. If their trip is going to be interrupted, the intrusion has to helpful. Another sales message is not necessarily helpful.
My fear is that retailers and manufacturers (who will no doubt be asked to pay for the technology) will gravitate to the “dark side” of beaconing and begin bombarding customers with unwarranted interruptions and distractions.
While there are examples of the technology we could talk about, I’m not sure anyone has given sufficient thought to creating a totally new shopping context/experience for the shopper.
Beacons can serve both shoppers and retailers, but this requires managing data in light of real-time experience (and adding another layer of “noise”) to the shopping communication overload already screaming for attention. This invariably is an assault on effective data, and even getting buy-in, prior to the collection and management of this information.
It’s a simple matter of value exchange. Only by retailers first giving the shopper value (not necessarily just offers or coupons) in exchange for their opting into being communicated with in-store, will the shopper be open to it. Even then, the interaction should be relevant, personal and unobtrusive.
A mobile commerce vendor, Beam Wallet, is implementing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacon technology that allows shoppers to get offers, redeem rewards and pay for merchandise without cash or cards. This technology, from a variety of vendors, is now ready for deployment in retail outlet settings and CPG can get into the fray with collaborative offers with retail merchants. Shoppers in the U.S. and around the world are more than ready to use this technology, so I see a rapid adoption process in the next 12 – 18 months across mature global markets.
Today’s consumer is very marketing averse. Retailers who only look at these technologies as marketing opportunities are missing the boat!
That is why I am personally not a fan of retail’s adoption of CMOs. Perhaps the issue is not so much what the job does, but what the title sounds like. Folks, this is NOT your grandaddy’s marketing. In my book, it is not even marketing! (definition: The act of buying or selling in the market.)
Okay, that’s just my pet peeve. I just think we need another name for what this position is.
It’s all about giving the consumer what they want to make their own decision including a great experience. So retail, let’s use this technology to make the shopping journey better. To answer your customers’ questions. To find a product. To compare a product. You get the picture.
Smart retailers are already moving in that direction.
And that’s my 2 cents.
One recent fun example of a creative use of Beacon technology was a partnership between Starbucks and the Seattle Seahawks.
More broadly, retailers should use Beacons as a way to give their consumer more control over their own shopping experience. Encourage shopping in a “logged-in state” and then use the combination of an app on your customer’s phone and a Beacon-enabled store to solve pain points and bottlenecks in your current shopping experience. Potential applications include greater precision in wayfinding and in-store mapping in big box and department stores, giving consumers as well as associates visibility to in-store inventory and letting consumers choose between self-serve shopping or a high-touch, assisted interaction.
It is interesting to watch retailers pay lip service to the concept of shopper control while they continue to place their objectives ahead of the consumers’. Mobile apps, (which power beacon technology) are overwhelmingly retailer centric in spite of all evidence that the shopper is firmly in control. The proliferation of retailer apps has become the electronic equivalent of loyalty cards on people’s key chains.
Obviously, as Adrian points out, “retail is about selling stuff” but is anyone asking shoppers what they want? Maybe we should give shoppers more control, instead of trying to devise methods to govern their control.
We have been using Bluetooth beacons to “listen” to shopper MAC identity and location since 2010, and have integrated what we have “heard” into important understanding of the shopper crowd—not individuals. The point here is to NOT join the cacophony of SHOUTING being done by stores, by hordes of aspiring communicators with them.
The imagination that what is needed is more communication TO the shopper is part and parcel of what is wrong with retailing today. And seeing technology as “assisting” with this (and marketers agreeing with it,) is the PROBLEM, not the solution.
No where is the brilliance of Neale Martin’s book, “Habit: The 95% of Behavior Marketers Ignore,” better seen. I could probably express this more strongly, but then I might be shouting. 😉
I smell QR codes. Give me the “off” switch and I’m using it. The misuse and abuse of beacons will turn consumers off before they get going. On the other hand, I just may turn it on for specific purposes, such as while at a sporting event. But I’m unlikely to do so when I know the primary purpose will be to sell me something.
I thought this was an amazing panel discussion (watched the whole stream). I loved the Lowe’s comment about “not making the shopper start over.” There is also a lot here about the emotional swings while shopping and how to improve the shopper experience at that level and leverage a change in emotions that indicates a readiness to transact.
As far as beacons go, I think the simple way of getting response is to do while shopping what Catalina does at checkout. Use frequent shopper histories to anticipate upcoming purchase needs and serve offers.
I do not know any. Beacons are difficult to create and support on Android and proprietary on iOS and non-existent on Windows. I’m curious at all the hype, but no one seems to state the obvious fragmentation factor of the technology. In addition, one case study expressed frustration at not knowing if battery-powered beacons are actually working or know when the battery will run out and then having to walk around and test them out manually.
I would stay in a holding pattern until beacon technology matures.
Sometimes we get caught up in big exciting developments because they’re covered repeatedly at shows and in the trade mags. Everybody spends so much time trying to figure out how to monetize the exciting developments, but nobody ever bothers to stop and ask whether the development is valuable or useful in the first place.
@Sid Raisch: QR codes are an excellent comparison.