Source: www.KeywestTechnology.com
A new report from research
organization Datamonitor suggests brick-and-mortar retailers can make up some
ground on their Internet rivals through the smart use of technologies like
digital signage.
The report, "Shop X: where's
the store heading?," notes digital signage systems have the ability to
identify the presence of viewers, thereby turning up or down the volume control
automatically; detect when a shopper points at an item, thus triggering
relevant ads on nearby displays; and even figure out what sex and size a nearby
shopper happens to be.
Sex and size? At first glance,
that seems like a lot of fluff and hype, but it isn't. As retailers begin using
RFID tags in their merchandise and start designing their digital signage
systems with RFID sensors, making an educated guess about the sex and size of
shoppers becomes possible.
If you aren't familiar with RFID,
here are the basics: RFID (or radio frequency identification) devices use radio
waves to transmit digital information, such as the information that's currently
encoded in barcodes, to a special receiver. Like a TV or radio station, RFID
tags can transmit at different power levels, which affects how far the tag can
be separated from the receiver. Unlike a radio or TV station, these things are
tiny --so small that they can be inserted under the skin of animals and people
to serve as personal electronic IDs or embedded directly into merchandise.
(While I'm not going to use this
space to discuss the privacy concerns raised by these devices nor reports last
month of lab findings showing they possibly cause tumors in lab animals, I must
acknowledge the existence of these serious issues.)
For retailers, RFID tags have
been seen as a Holy Grail of sorts in the drive to reduce waste and improve
margin. For instance, its backers see RFID technology as a way retailers can
improve inventory control, track products from a manufacturer till they leave a
store and enhance in-store security efforts. Working with a digital signage
system, they can even assist in-store marketing efforts.
For instance, imagine it's the
holiday season and a shopper enters a women's clothier after buying merchandise
with an RFID tag embedded at the store next door --perhaps a pair of Manolo
Blahnik high heels (for all of you Carrie Bradshaw fans out there.) If that
retailer had an RFID reader, some interesting information could be derived from
those RFID-tagged, trendy shoes, including size and model. With those two
pieces of information alone --and a reasonable guess that the shopper is a
woman- a database of commercials can be scoured to retrieve just the right one
to playback for the designer shoe buyers-- perhaps the right fragrance or
designer dress.
If you let your imagination roam,
you can begin to see why Datamonitor has identified technology as a way for
brick-and-mortar retailers to begin competing more effectively with their
online rivals. It's just possible that what cookies are to Web sites and
marketers, RFID tags and digital signage systems could be to real-world
retailers, namely a way to gather information about shoppers and market to them
on a personal level, based on knowing something about who they are.
Whether it's RFID technology,
proximity detectors, temperature gauges, motion sensors or any of a number of
other input technologies and data sources, the bottom line is digital signage
systems don't have to blindly prattle on with messages that are out of context.
They can be enabled to gather information from their environment and display
the appropriate content to better serve the shopper and the retailer.
About
the Author:
To read more articles on Textile, Industry, Technical Textile, Dyes & Chemicals, Machinery, Fashion, Apparel, Technology, Retail, Leather, Footwear & Jewellery, Software and General please visit http://articles.fibre2fashion.com
To promote your company, product and services via promotional article, follow
this link: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/services/article-writing-service/content-promotion-services.asp
