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Rw tech sept2012_lr[1]
1. RetailWeek
TECHNOLOGY
September 2012
● Online engagement
why digital content is king
● Self-service checkouts
harness their full potential
● Blue-sky thinking the
cloud service space race
The companies shaping the future of in-store mobile payments
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4. 4 RWT | September 2012 | retail-week.com
T
he mobile payments market is flour-
ishing – it seems barely a week goes by
without another new company entering
the fray. But it makes for a confusing time for
retailers. A proliferation of services means it
can be difficult to know what to invest in and
which company does what. So who are the
main players, what do they offer and what do
retailers need to know?
Although in-store mobile payment is still
in its early days, retailers are interested – done
right, it can improve the customer experi-
ence by speeding up payment and cutting
queues, and businesses from Marks & Spencer
to Waitrose are trying it. But the number of
mobile payment solutions can seem bewil-
dering, especially as not all of them are
expected to reach critical mass.
Sandy Shen, research director for consumer
services at analyst firm Gartner, says payment
mechanisms can be divided into two camps
– those using near-field communications
(NFC), which is often referred to as contactless
payments, and those that use mobile applica-
tions, such as PayPal.
She says: “We don’t expect NFC payments
to hit the mainstream market until 2016.
The market adoption has been slower than
expected, there have been some technical
issues.” The delay is partly due to the initial
investment costs – NFC requires smartphones
to have an NFC chip and merchants to have
contactless readers. David Hodgkinson,
KPMG’s customer and channel management
practice, says apps are much cheaper: “Cloud-
based branded apps can be a lot less expensive
because they are not hardware based.”
E-wallet options
So what are the main options? In September
2011, Google Wallet was launched in the
US. It is one of several e-wallets, including
Visa’s V.Me and the O2 Wallet. An e-wallet is
a payment method that can be used by any
device connected to the internet, including
smartphones. Google Wallet stores a custom-
er’s credit and debit cards, and users tap their
phone on an NFC terminal at checkout and
chose which card to pay with.
The app will allow Google to obtain infor-
mation on sales trans-
actions, although some
retailers will no doubt be
reticent to share informa-
tion with the search giant. If
retailers allow their loyalty
cards to be stored in the app,
Google will also have infor-
mation about a customer’s
spending habits.
David Oliver, partner
at PwC Consulting, says:
“For Google, it’s all about
data. They’re an advertising
business. The piece of data
they don’t have is how we
spend our money in stores.
This gives them access to
that data.”
He says the most impor-
tant consideration for
retailers is who might gain
access to their informa-
Tapping into
mobile walletsThe mobile payments market is still developing, but it’s already
crowded and can be confusing. Claire Burke asks who are the main
players and what’s in it for them?
tion. “They need to ask ‘who’s going to have
access to that data and for what purposes?’
and ‘in what form is my data available to other
retailers?’” he says.
Under the Google Offers programme,
retailers are expected to pay Google for
sending targeted offers and advertisements to
individuals, based on their spending patterns.
The company, therefore, controls the offers the
customer receives.
Hodgkinson says: “They don’t charge on
top of the interchange fee. They make money
by selling services around the transactions the
consumer is making. Retailers are paying to
have offers put in front of the consumer via
mobile devices.”
Physical stores
PayPal, meanwhile, launched its first major UK
retail roll-out this year when Aurora Fashions
decided to start using its services. The PayPal
in-store app provides the customer with a
unique barcode and transaction number,
which the shop cashier scans to take payment
from the customer’s PayPal account.
Oliver says: “For PayPal, very much an
online-only business, it’s an opportunity to get
into the physical store world for the first time.”
Being a payment services company, it makes
In association with
5. retail-week.com | September 2012 | RWT 5
send payments and it enables a user to send
money abroad. Hodgkinson explains that
it is intended to rival services such as those
provided by Western Union. He adds: “It’s a
clever strategy because international payments
is a big market.”
The bank does not charge for the service and
those who are not customers with Barclays can
still register to use it. The catch is the amount
of data customers need to supply. “You need
to hand over a lot of information, which lets
them build a marketing profile for potential
new customers,” Hodgkinson says.
Mobile phone operators also have
something to gain from being involved in the
mobile payment market. “They are seeing it as
an incremental revenue stream,” says Oliver at
PWC Consulting.
Wallet platform
O2 launched O2 Wallet in April, which works
by allowing customers to preload money onto
their accounts and use their phone to pay. The
company is also involved in a joint venture
known as Project Oscar, with Vodafone and
Everything Everywhere, which owns T-Mobile
and Orange. The venture will see the operators
forming a company to create a mobile wallet
platform.
Another option for retailers is to create their
own branded app. Starbucks’ mobile payment
app has proved successful. It works by allowing
customers to load money onto a prepaid
account and, when they want to pay in store,
they press a button on the app which shows a
QR code that is scanned.
Hodgkinson says it has been a success. “It
works really well in terms of payment. It’s been
very successful for Starbucks. The company
processed 26 million mobile payments in
2011.” It also means Starbucks can keep
control of customer relationship management
and doesn’t have to pay someone else to put
promotions in front of customers.
It’s a confusing business, and the mobile
payments market will keep developing in the
coming months – retailers who are interested
will need to keep an eye on its evolution. ■
money on the payment by charging merchants
an interchange fee.
But Hodgkinson warns that it’s fairly pricey:
“PayPal will come under pressure because they
are expensive.”
However, Shen points out that a key advan-
tage is it is already a popular and widely known
brand. She says: “PayPal has a big user base to
tap into.”
In the US in March, a PayPal in-store
payment system was rolled out across nearly
2,000 Home Depot stores. Customers can
use a PayPal account by typing their mobile
phone number and a PayPal account pin on an
in-store terminal. The retailer did not need to
install new software, instead upgrading point-
of-sale equipment.
“There is another option for large retailers,”
adds Shen. “They can have their own branded
app, and customers can pay using PayPal.” She
says McDonald’s in France is rolling this out.
Visa and Mastercard
Visa and MasterCard are also keen to play a
leading part in mobile payments services and
are obviously keen not to lose their role as a
primary handler of payments.
Oliver says they are trying to protect their
market share.“If you take the established bank
and credit cards operators it’s partly protec-
tive,” he says.
Shen says Visa and Mastercard – which has
expanded mobile payment service PayPass into
a larger platform called PayPass Wallet Services
– are trying to seize every opportunity.
Customers might soon use smartphones to
pay where they would have previously used
cash, and Visa wants to increase the number
of small transactions it deals with. Shen says:
“For Visa, it’s about capturing some of the cash
transactions market because it’s an additional
business opportunity.”
Visa’s V.Me digital wallet will launch in the
UK on a trial basis in October 2012 with a
wider roll-out expected next year. It will not
include point-of-sale contactless payments at
launch, but ultimately will.
Jon White, head of marketing for mobile
strategic alliances at Visa Europe, says: “In the
next 10 years, we can expect to see the creation
of entirely new shopping experiences, where
stores on both the high street and internet
become seamlessly integrated and made
accessible through the mobile device in the
shopper’s pocket.”
Barclays’ Pingit adopts a slightly different
approach. The app allows people to link their
bank account to their mobile number to
In association with
Large retailers can have
their own branded app,
and customers can pay
using PayPal
Sandy Shen, Gartner
6. 6 RWT | September 2012 | retail-week.com
Content is king
Retailers are battling to stand out from the crowd and keep customers
interested, and digital content is an effective tool. Jessica Twentyman
asks how retailers can become digital publishing experts, and
discusses the best way to produce content online
Online content should spark
emotion in a customer and
spur them to action
Chris Gorell Barnes, Adjust Your Set
W
hen Liz Earle Beauty Company, a
British brand owned by Avon,
launched a new make-up line to
complement its existing range of skincare
products in May, it already had the ideal
platform for showcasing the products, advising
customers on how to use them and encour-
aging them to buy: Liz Earle TV.
Launched seven months earlier, the online
channel offers video content that includes
company and product news, expert beauty tips
and ‘how-to’ demon-
strations of products –
but more importantly,
it features‘click to buy’
functionality, which
means that customers
can quickly add any
item they see in the
videos to their basket.
And they can do
that whether they’re
watching them on the
Liz Earle website, on it’s Facebook page which
has 42,670 ‘likes’, or on YouTube.
“Liz Earle TV affords us a huge opportunity
to engage with our customers in a new and
unique way, highlighting our company philos-
ophy and history, plus the quick and easy-to-
use nature of our products,” said Liz Earle’s
global brand director Hannah Webley-Smith
at the channel’s launch in October last year.
The credit for creating the video content
and integrating it with Liz Earle’s ecommerce
systems goes to Adjust Your Set, a London-
based multichannel video agency that also
works for Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and
Thomas Pink.
“If content is king, then context is queen,”
says Chris Gorell Barnes, chief executive of
AdjustYour Set.Online content,he says,should
be designed and delivered in a way that sparks
emotion in a customer but, more importantly,
spurs them to action – preferably to make
a purchase. “A customer’s click on a piece of
content, if it’s compelling enough and gives
the right informa-
tion about a product
to make it appeal to
the customer, should
trigger a second click,
a buy click,” he says.
Video content,
when used effectively,
increases customer
dwell time on a site,
ups conversion rates
and repeat business
and can dramatically boost a retailer’s search
rankings, according to Gorell Barnes. Asos was
an early adopter – its catwalk fashion videos
helped to increase conversion and made it
stand out from other online players. The
service remains one of Asos’ most successful
innovations because it allows shoppers to see
how the clothes move on models as they walk.
Those are all appealing prospects for
retailers – especially the promise of higher
conversion rates. It’s a goal that has already
been achieved by foot-wear retailer Dune,
which began piloting
product videos on
selected lines in May
2011. It decided to
roll out videos of its
entire range later that
year after seeing a
“significant impact”
on conversion rates.
Dune uses Adobe’s
hosted digital asset
management platform Scene7 to manage
videos for its commerce site. It can also deliver
product views and zooms, colour swatches
and click-through promotional banners and is
used by retailers including Boots, Shop Direct,
Harrods and Debenhams.
All these elements are vital to create a
compelling user experience, says Jamie
Brighton, EMEA product marketing manager
at Adobe. “Digital content for retailers is all
about bridging the gap for customers between
their offline and online shopping experiences,”
he says. Shoppers like to get a really good look
at the product that they’re thinking of buying,
he says and, if they can’t see it properly, they
won’t buy. “Retail brands need to remember
that because, historically, this gap in experi-
ence – getting a good, hard look at a product –
is one of the main areas where online retail has
struggled to match the in-store experience.”
World play
But in an increasingly social and connected
world, compelling digital content isn’t just
a matter of what product features a retailer
chooses to show customers. What others say
about them matters too.
These ‘others’ might be well-known fashion
Asos was an early
adopter of putting
video content on its
retail website
Dune experienced a
“significant impact” on
conversion rates when
it introduced videos
In association with
ALAMY
7. retail-week.com | September 2012 | RWT 7
journalists, for example. In the US, department
store group Nordstrom struck a partnership
with men’s magazine GQ in May 2011 in which
products from the pages of the magazine were
sold in a dedicated shop at norstrommen.com,
which directs shoppers to the Nordstrom men’s
ecommerce site. Closer to home, clothing
retailer Boden partnered with Grazia magazine
on its autumn 2012 collection. In both Boden’s
print catalogue and online site, Grazia fashion
editors now pick out the items they like the
most from that collection. Such alliances bring
fresh content to a transaction between shopper
and retailer.
More important still is what customers
say about a product. According to research
conducted by market analyst Forrester
Research, on behalf of digital commerce
specialists Bazaarvoice and RichRelevance,
today’s online shoppers are looking for three
kinds of content when deciding to buy:
product details, certainly, but also peer reviews
and personalised recommendations.
According to the research, in which more
than 500 UK-based online customers were
surveyed, 86% rely on product ratings and
reviews by other customers before making
an online purchase. Personalised product
recommendations are also
widely used for purchases
– 93% of UK shoppers
surveyed said that they had seen
recommendations on retailers’ sites
and 42% said they had made a purchase based
on personalised product recommendations.
User-generated content (UGC) in the
form of customer reviews is an increasingly
common type of digital content on UK online
retail sites. Argos, Boots and Cath Kidston, for
instance, all use Bazaarvoice’s hosted platform
integrated with their ecommerce sites for
handling this kind of content. The online
review sites of Boden, Superdry and Millets,
meanwhile, are powered by Shopzilla.
Spread the message
The content retailers create themselves should
be distributed to as wide an audience as possible.
This can be posted on a retailer’s Facebook page,
on YouTube and linked to on Twitter, as is the
case at Liz Earle. Electricals retailers Currys and
PC World regularly tweet links to promotions
and discount codes on their website from its
Twitter account @curryspcworlduk. This drives
traffic to content that might not otherwise be
seen by potential customers.
Retailers should also target ‘key influencers’,
particularly bloggers, says Trisha Brandon,
head of content at digital marketing agency
iCrossing, where she works with retailers John
Lewis, TK Maxx, Land’s End and Lipsy.“There
needs to be a mix when it comes to how you
distribute your best content,”she says. Retailers
need to engage influencers by creating exclu-
sive content for them or giving them hooks
around which they can create their own
content – a video clip of a fashion shoot, an
interview with a hot designer or simply previ-
ously unseen product photography.
Brandon says: “Providing these influencers
are given something of value, it’s
a win-win situation for both
sides. By forging connec-
tions and sharing content
with them, stories are
told about a brand in
fresh ways.”
This approach is
used by iCrossing for
retailers including John
Lewis. The agency shares
exclusive video content with
bloggers, such as Kristin Knox
at theclotheswhisperer.co.uk,
who attend the annual Vogue
Fashion Night Out event in
September in London.
But the first place to start is
still with the company’s own
product pages, according to a recent report
by Lauren Freedman of US-based ecommerce
consulting firm E-tailing Group. “Creative
how-to guides, video, alternative views and
interactive tools all support a more sophisti-
cated, content-rich experience,” she says. The
company’s survey of 147 online merchants
found that 87% plan to invest more in category
content over the course of 2012.
It’s an investment worth making, Freedman
says. The result will be more compel-
ling and memorable brand experiences for
customers, which more retailers will need
to provide as online and multichannel sales
grow. As customers become more astute and
demanding, and the retail landscape gets more
competitive, good quality digital content will
become crucial to stand out from the crowd. ■
There needs to be a mix
when it comes to how you
distribute your best content
Trisha Brandon, iCrossing
– 93% of UK shoppers
surveyed said that they had seen
recommendations on retailers’ sites
and 42% said they had made a purchase based
on personalised product recommendations.
User-generated content (UGC) in the
form of customer reviews is an increasingly
are given something of value, it’s
a win-win situation for both
sides. By forging connec-
tions and sharing content
Lewis. The agency shares
exclusive video content with
bloggers, such as Kristin Knox
at theclotheswhisperer.co.uk,
who attend the annual Vogue
Fashion Night Out event in
September in London.
But the first place to start is
CLICK
TO
BUY
and 42% said they had made a purchase based
User-generated content (UGC) in the
form of customer reviews is an increasingly
bloggers, such as Kristin Knox
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9. retail-week.com | September 2012 | RWT 9
A
new phrase has emerged in retail over
the last year or so – ‘showrooming’,
which involves customers using
physical stores to check out a product but
buying elsewhere, either online or with their
mobile phone, because it’s cheaper or more
convenient.
It’s proving an increasing headache for
retailers as they fight to win sales – and one
that technology itself is enabling as in-store
Wi-Fi is rolled out.
But this is not a new phenomenon.A Dixons
advertising campaign in 2009 encouraged
shoppers to try out products at John Lewis but
to buy online at Dixons, and there has long
been rivalry between channels.
However, Chris Donnelly, global industry
managing director for retail at Accenture, says
the growth of mobile commerce over the last
two years has made showrooming easier for
consumers and a critical issue for retailers.
“Showrooming is most popular among
consumers purchasing big-ticket items and
branded goods, where a like-for-like price
comparison is possible,” he says. The problem
also causes tensions between retailers’ own
stores and internet businesses.
Embracing change
James Spalding, managing director of
e-commerce provider e2x, which works with
B&Q, says retailers have been trying to find
a solution. “Some have tried selling products
exclusively in-store, but this is a lazy idea that is
more likely to lead to resentment by customers
and goes completely against the multichannel
approach they should be adopting,” he says.
Siobhán Géhin, associate partner at consul-
tancy Kurt Salmon, says a recent Kurt Salmon
and Prosper Corporation survey of 8,000
consumers revealed that 70% of consumers
aged 25 to 54 with smartphones use them to
Stores go multichannel
Bricks-and-mortar retailers are installing a raft of online technologies to showcase their complete ranges
and prevent consumers buying elsewhere after testing products in-store. Liz Morrell finds out more
the right information in their hands to engage
the customer,” he says.
Shopper engagement
Rolling out in-store Wi-Fi is important, not
only for customers but for store staff, who
need access to information. Lee Gill, senior
vice-president of retail strategy at supply chain
software specialist JDA, says retailers need to
fully engage with the shopper. “That will only
be achieved by empowering the sales associate
by giving them access to real-time information
possibly through a tablet device,” he says.
Fashion retailer Reiss is 90% through the
roll out of iPads in its stores, with 57 now live
in the UK, supported by a Wi-Fi network from
Vodat International. Like fashion giant Aurora,
which has led the way in using in-store tablets,
it allows customers to view its full collection
and order products not available in store.
Additionally, using Wi-Fi in store means the
store can easily claim the sale as its own.
Reiss business systems manager Alex Dixon
says the project has exceeded expectations –
driving an uplift in sales that is likely to deliver
a return on investment in less than three
months.
Retailers can dramatically
increase sales by telling
shoppers the item is in stock
and available to take away
Phillip Adcock, Shopping Behaviour Xplained
comparison shop, up from 62% a year ago. She
says: “Nordstrom, the US department store,
was surprised that many younger customers
were using its app while shopping in-store
instead of approaching salespeople.
“Rather than fighting this,Nordstrom added
Wi-Fi to its stores and is testing recharging
stations and providing clusters of iPads for
shopper use.”
Phillip Adcock, founder of research agency
Shopping Behaviour Xplained, says retailers
need to understand how the shopper thinks to
realise that with the right retail proposition the
store can still win the sale. “The human brain
always disproportionately favours immediate
gain over deferred loss. So retailers can
dramatically increase sales by telling shoppers
the item is in stock and available to take away
now,” he says.
BT Expedite chief executive Josh Pert agrees.
He says retailers will still have the upper hand
if price comparison is driving showrooming.
“You have the opportunity to get to the
customer first, present them with better infor-
mation and fulfil the product on the spot.
This is a very powerful advantage if you can
respond quickly, making sure your staff have
More consumers are
making purchases
via their smartphone
In association with
10. 10 RWT | September 2012 | retail-week.com
“We have seen this as an absolute must to
bridge the gap between channels. There should
be no boundaries for our customers when they
come into one of our stores,” he says.
But as well as opening up the product
range, such initiatives allow retailers to access
customer history and product informa-
tion that allows them to provide a person-
alised shopping experience more likely to
result in a sale. “For retailers to profit in this
showrooming environment, it’s more impor-
tant than ever for stores to create a personal-
ised experience for their customers,” according
to Craig Sears-Black, managing director of
Manhattan Associates.
Single customer view
A single view of each customer also enables
retailers to target shoppers with offers that
persuade them to buy while in store,says Cindy
Etsell, head of retail at SAS UK and Ireland.
“Understanding who your customers are,
what they buy and how, their age, gender and
other key demographics is crucial and can give
retailers a clear strategy on how to deal with
challenges such as showrooming,” she says.
However, Gill says sales staff should have
freedom to bargain too. “The associate should
iPads at Reiss
The roll out at Reiss was designed to enable
customers to connect to the retailer’s website
in store, enabling them to see Reiss’ full
collection of products, and allowing the store
to order stock not held in the shop. Staff also
have access to Reiss’ retail intranet ‘Clothes
Live’ allowing them to access planners and
check availability.
Stores only have one iPad per site but Reiss
business systems manager Alex
Dixon says the retailer is considering
introducing further devices and is looking at
their use in changing rooms. “The changing
rooms would be one area we might look at,
so customers trying items on can see what
other items are available to complete the look.
Future plans include allowing customers onto
our Wi-Fi network in a controlled manner and
potentially streaming videos via the iPads,”
he says.
be prepared to
negotiate on price,
having access to
real-time compara-
tive price informa-
tion and business
rules that define the
amount of discount
that can be offered,
based on the custom-
er’s ‘value’ to the
retailer,” he says.
“This will encourage customers to buy rather
than just try.”
Maplin Electronics agreed a roll out of
in-store Wi-Fi earlier this year with The
Cloud. The deal will allow it to promote a
range of tailored products and promotions via
a branded Wi-Fi landing page, personalised
according to shoppers’ browsing histories, as
well as allow customers to read product reviews
or discuss purchases on social media. Retailers
including John Lewis are also using kiosks and
in-store technology to help staff sell.
Tailored communications
Ian Smith,senior consultant with Kurt Salmon,
says retailers should encourage customers to
challenge prices and should more accurately
track customers too. Asking for login details
when the Wi-Fi is used will enable the retailer
to track subsequent purchasing and browsing
data. “If they do not buy anything, retailers
can then contact them with tailored marketing
communications based on their previous
online or in-store history,” he adds.
Wi-Fi based‘presence zone’technologies can
also help persuade shoppers to buy in store.
They identify a shopper’s presence in the shop,
according to James Lovell, a European smarter
commerce solutions consultant for IBM.
“Coupled with location-based services linked
with smartphone devices, they give retailers
the ability to identify customers individually
as soon as they enter the store and then serve
targeted marketing communications messages
via their phone or on digital displays in-store,”
he says.
Pert at BT Expedite says continuing
improvements in location-based services allow
incentives to be delivered to the customer
while shopping, meaning a retailer’s message
can be presented to them before they’ve even
started comparing prices online.
But while technology can help, many experts
believe that the best approach to combating
showrooming is a simpler one that requires
retailers go back to the basics of customer
service. “Retailers need to make sure their
employees are trained as sales people, not just
clerks,” says Sears-Black.
As with many problems in the present retail
environment, the solution needs to be multi-
pronged and retailers need to be creative.
But with the right approach, even difficult
multichannel problems can be solved. n
Retailers have the ability to identify
customers as soon as they enter the store
and then serve targeted marketing
communications messages via their phone
James Lovell, IBM
John Lewis is among a
number of retailers to
have installed online
tools in its stores
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13. retail-week.com | September 2012 | RWT 13
F
rom demand analytics to mobile
shopping, technology is constantly
changing. Innovations in technology are
allowing retailers to make the shopping experi-
ence faster, more convenient and more interac-
tive. So who’s leading the way in retail?
From fashion to food, retailers are finding
interesting ways of using technology to
enhance their offer and, despite the current
economic climate, investment in new IT is
continuing. Technology hasn’t always been
a strategic priority but, as these retailers show,
it’s becoming a worthwhile way to stand out
from the crowd.
Aurora Fashions
Andy Tudor is head of IT for Aurora Client
Services. He works for technology supplier
Retail Assist, which has been supporting
Aurora Fashions – owner of brands including
Warehouse, Oasis and Coast – and Karen
Millen in introducing innovations in
technology for the last 18 months.
Among them is ‘Anywhere Everywhere’, a
new approach to stock management and order
fulfilment. The process starts when a customer
A high-tech step forward
An innovative reserve and collect scheme and integrated online shopping solutions are two uses of IT that
are enabling retail brands to stand out in the marketplace. Claire Burke discovers what’s new
You don’t need to hold as much overall in the
business when you can ship it directly from
the store. The cost of holding stock is reduced
Andy Tudor, Aurora Client Services
places an order on the website. The order
is sent into the management system,
which then sources the product from the
distribution centre in the first instance. But
if it’s not there, the order management
system will source the product from a retail
outlet instead.
Aurora was among the first to introduce
the system. It was up and running in October
last year, after the software had been tested
and installed.
Tudor says: “We were certainly first in the
fashion world and I know that other retailers
are developing that capability. It’s all about not
disappointing customers.”
Theinitiativemeans
thatcustomersreceive
products sooner, and
stores can avoid
marking down items
in the store when
they are still in
demand online.
Tudor adds: “It’s
also about inventory
holding. You don’t
need to hold as much overall in the business
when you can ship it directly from the store.
The cost of holding stock is reduced.”
Currys and PC World
Technology is also improving the order process
at electricals retailer Currys and PC World.
Brian Hume, managing director of retail
consultancy Martec International, singled out
the retailer’s Reserve and Collect service as an
example of clever use of IT in retail.
It starts working once a customer has
ordered an item on the Currys and PC World
websites. They are then given the option of
choosing a store to collect the item from.
Burberry’s fashion
show featured
real models and
holograms
In association with
ALAMY
14. 14 RWT | September 2012 | retail-week.com
An email will confirm the order – this usually
takes five to 15 minutes – and they can pick up
the product just an hour later.
Hume says: “The people at the front of the
pack are going to do same-day click-and-
collect. With Currys you can go an hour later
to your store and pick it up, even if it’s out of
stock in stores. Everyone doing online retail
will have to go that way.”
To offer such a quick service, retailers need
the technology to know what is in store at that
very moment.
Hume explains: “You need to know what
stock is in store now. Every time they sell an
item in store they have to update the database
in real time.”
He says that, when an item is sold, the infor-
mation will be sent to the store’s headquarters
immediately. “Within 20 minutes, I guess, the
database is up to date. Three or four years from
now you won’t be able to be competitive unless
you’re doing that.
“There are only a small number of
retailers doing this now but it will become
obligatory in the not too distant future.”
Burberry
Martin Gill, principal
analyst for ecommerce
and channel strategy
at Forrester Research,
highlighted Burberry as
leading the way in its in-
store digital experience.
He says: “Burberry is
one which stands out.
It’s probably the brand
with the most advanced
embedded digital strategy.
Where they are pushing
boundaries now is the
in-store digital experi-
ence, the theatrical retail
experience.”
Burberry’s fashion
show in Beijing last year,
for instance, featured
both real models and
holograms. “It was
a blended digital and
physical catwalk show,
it looked amazing. They
streamed it live to a number of flagship
stores around the world,” says Gill.
Customers in Burberry stores were
given iPads to watch the show and if they
saw something they wanted, could order
a product using the devices. This meant
they were ordering garments before the lines
were finalised.
Gill says that Burberry achieved this
by integrating the manufacturing and
ecommerce systems “Their processes are
slick enough, enabled
by technology. They can
understand projected
volumes and build stock,”
he says.
Debenhams
Innovations in technology
are allowing retailers
to improve integration
across their channels.
Gill praises Deben-
hams for the way it has
integrated its iPhone app
shopping basket with its
ecommerce operation.
He says: “They are
one of the few brands to
do this. Technically it’s
complicated. You can go
to a store, use your app
to scan products, look at
the price then drop it into your iPhone
shopping cart.”
The customer might decide not to buy
the item there and then. But, if they later go
onto the store’s website the item will come
up, giving the customer another opportunity
to buy it.
Asos
Asos also has good integration of platforms.
Gill says: “They integrate content, communi-
ties and ecommerce. Asos produces videos
and season style guides, and it’s not just
standalone content. There are always links
that take you back to the ecommerce site.
They know the more you interact with a
brand the better.” Everything from the fashion
etailer’s Pinterest page to its print magazine
can link customers back to product pages,
driving traffic volumes.
There are so many areas to get right in retail
technology it can seem a daunting task to know
what to do first. But retailers are still getting it
right, even in times of rapid change.
Asos integrates communities and ecommerce
Tesco’s virtual success
Tesco is among the retailers leading the way
in technology. In August, it unveiled one of the
UK’s first interactive virtual grocery store in
Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal.
It aims to help passengers avoid the
inconvenience of coming home from holiday
to an empty fridge. The store uses interactive
digital displays, allowing passengers to browse,
as they would in a physical store, and take
advantage of the convenience of an online
grocery shop and home delivery. Shoppers can
view a range of products by scrolling through
moving screens on large virtual fridges. By
scanning the barcodes with their smartphones
they can add chosen products to their online
baskets, book a home delivery slot and pay.
Their shopping will then be delivered when
they return from holiday.
Last year Tesco launched a virtual store
in South Korea and it was able to use that
experience when it came to opening its virtual
store at Gatwick.
Tesco said the technological challenges it
faced included the quality of the 3G signal,
deciding whether it would need to use Wi-Fi,
getting the specification of the barcodes just
right to ensure customers would be able to
scan them easily, ensuring staff understood the
whole grocery operation from start to finish,
and, in terms of the website, planning the
customer journey to ensure it was a logical one.
The people at the front of the
pack are going to do same-day
click-and-collect. All online
retailers will go that way
Brian Hume, Martec International
Martin Gill, principal
analyst for ecommerce
and channel strategy
at Forrester Research,
highlighted Burberry as
leading the way in its in-
store digital experience.
He says: “Burberry is
one which stands out.
It’s probably the brand
with the most advanced
embedded digital strategy.
Where they are pushing
boundaries now is the
in-store digital experi-
ence, the theatrical retail
Burberry’s fashion
show in Beijing last year,
for instance, featured
both real models and
holograms. “It was
a blended digital and
physical catwalk show,
it looked amazing. They
streamed it live to a number of flagship
stores around the world,” says Gill.
slick enough, enabled
by technology. They can
understand projected
volumes and build stock,”
he says.
Debenhams
Innovations in technology
are allowing retailers
to improve integration
across their channels.
Gill praises Deben-
hams for the way it has
integrated its iPhone app
shopping basket with its
ecommerce operation.
He says: “They are
one of the few brands to
do this. Technically it’s
complicated. You can go
to a store, use your app
to scan products, look at
the price then drop it into your iPhone
shopping cart.”
Debenhams is using
technology to ring
the changes
In association with
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*Proud sponsors of the Retail Week Technology Summit 2012.
Providing retailers with the latest technology solutions and strategies
to compete in today’s complex retail environment.
Solving Today’s
Complex Retail Problems
Quantum Retail offers the most innovative
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optimisation solution for maximising a
retailer’s profit and service levels.
We help retailers become more efficient at
eliminating excess inventory, markdowns
and waste whilst supporting expansion and
multichannel growth.
16. Congratulations to all the nominees at the Oracle Retail Week Awards. You’re
the ones writing the next chapter in this ever-more complex and fast-paced
industry. What we used to call ‘multi-channel’ is now just a given. Today, it’s about
coordinating those channels to create a truly seamless in-store and on-line customer
experience. At ReThink, this reflects our approach to recruitment and resourcing.
Our dedicated Retail Sector team has an in-depth knowledge of everything from
retail systems to e- and m-commerce, and from operational development to supply
chain and logistics. Together we’ve earned an enviable reputation for our quality
approach to the market. And for the fresh ideas we bring to every recruitment
challenge. To get the full story and discover what we can do for you, call our
Retail Director, Iain Blair on 0117 317 8888 or visit www.rethink-recruitment.com
retold
Retail
You’re the ones writing the next chapter in this ever-more complex and fast-paced
industry. What we used to call ‘multi-channel’ is now just a given. Today, it’s about
coordinating those channels to create a truly seamless in-store and on-line customer
experience. At ReThink, this reflects our approach to recruitment and resourcing. Our
dedicated Retail Sector team has an in-depth knowledge of everything from retail
systems to e- and m-commerce, and from operational development to supply chain and
logistics. Together we’ve earned an enviable reputation for our quality approach to the
market. And for the fresh ideas we bring to every recruitment challenge. Whether you’re a
client looking for talent or you are the talent looking for your next role, to get the full story
and discover what we can do for you, call our Retail Director, Iain Blair on 0117 317 8888
or visit www.rethink-recruitment.com
17. retail-week.com | September 2012 | RWT 17
S
elf-service checkouts are one of the
more divisive in-store technologies of
the past couple of decades. Introduced
in the late 1990s, they’re loved by retailers for
their efficiency but disliked by some customers
for their glitches, and a love-hate relationship
has ensued.
The benefits are obvious. The tills can speed
up transaction times and free staff to serve
customers on the shopfloor, while taking up
less space than a manned till. But bugbears
remain, particularly when staff intervention
is required, and Ikea is just one retailer to
have experienced problems. This summer the
Is self-service
fit for purpose?
Self-service tills are now common,
but is the technology doing
what it’s supposed to do?
Liz Morrell finds out
Current technology relies on products being
bagged one at a time, resulting in the infamous
‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ message
Sandra Samulski, Kurt Salmon
Swedish furniture giant revealed that it was
removing self-checkouts in the US because
the systems, which were more secure than UK
versions, required too much staff oversight.
Love-hate relationship
Tim Ogle, European chief executive of
customer intelligence company Market
Force, says that the flaws in the system can
actually extend waiting times. “There are
some technology tweaks that still need to be
addressed,” he says.
Market Force recently surveyed 5,000
shoppers on the use of self-service checkouts
which showed that
more than half (57%)
liked them because
they speed up the
payment process and
64% said retailers
should invest in more
this year.
But it also showed
how frustrating the
experience can be.
Almost half (44%) said they didn’t use self-
service checkouts because they preferred to
interact with staff, while 22% said they didn’t
like the amount of time it took to get authorisa-
tion for age-restricted products.
A 2011 white paper, The Impact of Self-
service on the Customer Experience, from
the Henley Centre for Customer Manage-
ment found that customer experiences of
self-service technology can be poor. “In many
cases, self-service applications are damaging
rather than enhancing the consumers’ overall
service experience,” it said.
But despite the problems, the market is
growing. Strategic research and consulting
firm Retail Banking Research says that in 2011
shipments of self-checkout terminals rose
to 26,700, a number that is set to more than
double by 2017 to 60,000.
Helen McInnes, retail trend watcher at
technology provider NCR, says the market
has developed quickly in the UK. She says: “In
larger supermarkets between 20% and 70%
of lanes are self-service. They handle between
35% and 70% of transactions and are now
Studies show
a near 50:50
split among
customers for
and against
self-checkout
In association with
18. 18 RWT | September 2012 | retail-week.com
used by 40 million customers every week in
the UK.”
A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman says the use
of self-service checkouts is about giving
the customer choice, rather than replacing
staffed tills. She maintains: “There is a trend
for customers to shop more often for smaller
amounts in order to waste less, so the greater
choice and checkout numbers that self-
checkout has given us makes for a better
shopping experience.”
But the experience can still be improved,says
Sandra Samulski, retail consultant at consul-
tancy Kurt Salmon. “Current technology relies
on products being scanned and bagged one
at a time,resulting in the infamous‘unexpected
item in bagging area’message when a customer
tries to scan and bag more than one item,”
she says.
Accuracy of the scales also causes customer
frustration – especially when they fail to
register a bagged product. Sainsbury’s admits
this can be a problem.
“Some of the common problems arrive from
the weighing scale that interacts with the point
of sale system, and the bagging alert when
customers’ own shopping bags are too heavy
when first put on to the checkout,” says the
retailer’s spokeswoman.
Sainsbury’s points out that colleagues are
available to help if customers are having
problems but Samulski says the systems
still need to improve. “Scale readings need
to become quicker and more accurate, and
retailers have been fine tuning the scale settings
to ensure light items such as greetings cards are
registered by the machine,” she says.
But that’s not all. Samulski says that
on-screen user interfaces could be improved
to reduce confusion. “Shoppers are frequently
left puzzled when they are required to know
the exact name of the bakery good or produce
item they are buying to be able to find it in the
menu,” says Samulski.
Security issues
Another motivation for ironing out glitches
is theft. A survey of nearly 5,000 shoppers by
watchmywallet.co.uk found that nearly a third
(30%) had stolen goods from supermarkets
while using self-service checkouts. The check-
outs are calibrated to detect when unpaid
items are put into the bagging area, but staff
often simply override the checkout to keep
queues moving.
Keeping tabs on customers in store might
help prevent theft becoming more of a
problem. This could be done by asking a
customer to identify themselves, either by
swiping a loyalty card at the till, using a log in,
or by installing sensors to detect consumers’
mobile phones when they enter the store – as
long as shoppers have given their consent for
this to happen. Theft is less likely to occur
if shoppers know the retailer is aware of
their presence.
Tony Harrington, assistant director of the
Henley Centre, says login information or
mobile phones could be used to keep a handle
on what customers buy. “That means that the
brand can establish a customer’s identity and
monitor a range of information about the user
as they move throughout the store,” he notes.
Although it may seem contradictory, self-
service checkouts actually require a higher
level of overall customer service than ever if
retailers are to keep customers happy. McInnes
at NCR says that the self-checkout area needs
plenty of staff monitoring the tills, adding:
“The self-checkouts increase the density of the
number of payment points in-store, but active
service delivery is still important.”
Sainsbury’s says that it has concentrated on
addressing this. “We have heavily invested in
colleague training to ensure that we can give
great service as well as coaching customers to
use the checkouts,” says the spokeswoman.
Grocers were among the first to embrace
self-checkout, but it has proven popular
throughout the industry. General merchandise
stores including retailers from Homebase to
WHSmith and Boots have introduced it.
WHSmith unveiled the roll out of self-service
checkouts from supplier NCR earlier this year,
using BT Expedite point-of-sale software, and
the technology has since been introduced in a
number of large high street and airport stores.
The retailer says customer feedback has been
positive, with queuing times reduced and no
detrimental impact to overall customer service.
Increasing customer choice
Boots introduced self-service tills in June 2007
and now has them in 100 stores. A spokes-
person says that the aim is to increase choice for
customers, adding: “Customer care is always
our first priority and by having self-service
machines as an option for our customers, our
aim is to increase the number of places they
can pay at rather than decrease the number of
colleagues we have on hand to offer advice.”
And as consumers become more tech-savvy,
they expect more choice. Chris Gates, director
of retail at Hitachi Consulting UK, says: “With
the rise of consumers that have grown up with
an inherent understanding of technology,there
is certainly a need for in-store technologies.”
The technology is likely to get more user-
friendly and IT providers insist that it is
improving. Ed Brindley, director of marketing
and business development at Wincor Nixdorf,
says that second generation self-checkouts are
less likely to malfunction. He points out that
some are also equipped with a cash hopper,
allowing customers to put both coins and
notes into the machine without needing to
flatten and feed notes.
There may be niggles, but self-service
machines enable retailers to cut queues and
release staff to work elsewhere, plus customers
are fans when they work correctly. It is likely
that they’re here to stay. n
Nearly a third of shoppers
(30%) have stolen goods from
supermarkets while using
self-service checkouts
Survey by watchmywallet.co.uk
Grocers
pioneered
self-service
checkouts
In association with
21. retail-week.com | September 2012 | RWT 21
A
pple and Amazon: they are two of the
world’s biggest retailers, yet they are
now competing in another race
entirely. Alongside Google, they are battling to
become the world’s largest provider of cloud-
based services.
In terms of financial clout, it doesn’t appear
an evenly pitched battle. In its most recent full
financial year (to 30 September, 2011), Apple
posted net income of $25.9bn (£16bn), on
revenues of $633.4bn (£389.9bn). By contrast,
in Amazon’s most recent financial year (to 31
December 2011) it post a comparatively paltry
net income of $631m (£388.5m), on revenues
of $48.1bn (£29.6bn). At the time of writing,
the market capitalisations of the two compa-
nies stood at $633.4bn (£389.9bn) for Apple
and $110.3bn (£679m) for Amazon.
But this is not a fight that will be won on
financials alone – and Amazon’s track record
Reach for the cloudsApple and Amazon might be retail giants, but they didn’t get where they are by being one-trick ponies.
Jessica Twentyman charts their battle to lead in the race to provide cloud-based services
Amazon revealed last month that for every 100
printed books sold on its UK site, 114 ebooks
are purchased.
Pay-as-you-go server capacity
Above all, Amazon is already an established
cloud services pioneer. Launched in 2006,
Amazon Web Services is a collection of services
that together provide companies of all sizes
with a computing platform ‘in the cloud’ that
can be increased or decreased in size, according
to a company’s needs. This collection has
grown quickly over the past six years, beyond
the core Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service,
which offers server capacity on a pay-as-
you-go basis, to include storage capacity and
content delivery networks.
It’s not possible to pinpoint exactly how
much revenueAmazonWeb Services takes each
quarter. The company reports revenues
Though much smaller
than Apple, Amazon
is making incursions
into its air space
Customers tell us that they
want access to all of their
music, wherever they are, and
on all the devices they use
Steve Boom, Amazon
of innovation is undeniable. It runs the
largest ecommerce site in the world, enjoying
a comfortable lead over any other rival.
Its ereader, Kindle, is the most popular device
of its kind in the world and the retailer sells
more ebooks than any other company,
despite the best efforts of other booksellers
and publishing houses to enter the market.
In association with
22. 22 RWT | September 2012 | retail-week.com
in three categories – media, electronics and
general merchandise, and ‘other’. It is in this
third category, ‘other’, where Amazon Web
Services revenues are reported, along with
what is calls “miscellaneous marketing and
promotional activities, our co-branded credit
card agreements and other seller sites”.
Still, revenues in this category came to more
than $1bn (£615m) in the first half of 2012,
prompting speculation among financial analysts
that, even if Amazon Web Services accounts for
just 75% of that ‘other’ category, it could easily
be a $1.5bn (£923m) a year business by the end
of 2012. Earlier this year, analysts at investment
bank Morgan Stanley estimated $1.19bn
(£733m) in revenue in 2011.
Amazon on the warpath
Either way, it’s safe to assume that Amazon is
already a billion-dollar cloud business. And
the company’s latest move in cloud services is a
clear challenge to Apple.
This summer, Amazon made a number of
Amazon’s B2B services
One area in which Amazon stands out in the
battle for provision of cloud services is to other
retailers. Carlos Conde, solutions architect at
Amazon Web Services, says: “Customers in
the retail sector are using us for everything
from back-office functions to marketing, and
from one-off projects to running their entire
ecommerce platforms in [our] cloud.”
To a large extent, retailers are drawn to Amazon
Web Services by the prospect of being able
to scale their cloud-based computing environ-
ment up and down according to changes in sales
volumes and customer demand, says Conde. This
saves them the trouble and expense of having to
buy in-house systems to cope with peak periods.
Having extra computing capacity for a short
period is also good for marketing campaigns.
In 2010, for example, Sainsbury’s commissioned
London-based digital marketing agency Dare to
run its ‘Feed your family for £50’ campaign.
“By moving this campaign on to Amazon’s
scalable technology, Dare didn’t have to invest
up-front technology resources and could focus
all its efforts on creative execution,” says Conde.
Some retailers are running their entire
business on Amazon Web Services, Conde says.
He observes: “Retailers are good at serving their
customers, but aren’t necessarily very good at
operating and managing large-scale, resilient
and highly-available IT infrastructures.”
But not every retailer wants to farm out
ecommerce to Amazon, and some have issues
with sharing so much transactional data with
another retailer which competes in almost
every sector. Marks & Spencer and Mothercare,
for instance, have in the past few years both
decided to come off Amazon’s web platform
and develop the necessary expertise in-house.
a n n o u n ce m e n t s
regardingitsyear-old
Cloud Player digital
music service, a
would-be rival to
Apple’s iTunes. First,
in mid-June, there
was the unveiling
of a free Cloud
Player app for Apple
iPhone and iPod
Touch, so that users can stream or download
music stored in their Amazon cloud account
to their Apple devices. Customers are granted
five gigabytes of storage on Cloud Player for
free. Those who need more must upgrade to a
paid option, which starts at $20 for 20GB, but
music purchased from Amazon doesn’t count
towards a user’s storage quota.
Previously, Cloud Player was only avail-
able for Android devices. “Customers tell us
that they want access to all of their music,
wherever they are, and on all the devices they
use,” said Steve Boom, vice-president of digital
music at Amazon, at the time of the launch.
“By bringing Cloud Player to iPhone and iPod
Touch, we now have the most widely compat-
ible cloud playback solution available, giving
our customers the ability to buy once and
enjoy music anywhere.”
Just six weeks laterAmazon struck again; this
time it announced‘scan and match’technology
for Cloud Player, which clearly will go head-to-
head with Apple’s iTunes Match service.
What this means is that when a customer
signs up for Cloud Player, Amazon will scan
the song libraries sitting on their computers
in Windows Media Player, for instance, or
on iTunes. Where it finds ‘matches’ – a song
on the user’s computer that is already avail-
able among the 20 million songs in the Cloud
Player library – they will be instantly made
available to that user in Cloud Player, without
them having to upload the song. That includes
those songs previously ripped from CDs, or
purchased from iTunes.
Such blatant attacks represent a clear
challenge to Apple’s iCloud, launched in
October 2011, which incorporates an ‘iTunes
in the cloud’ service, as well as cloud services
for storing documents, photographs, contacts
and calendars.
The idea behind iCloud is that a user with
multiple devices – an iPhone, an iPad and
a desktop Mac or PC – can rely on all their
personal content being synchronised in the
cloud and pushed out consistently to their
different devices.
That means that a user might open up
thebrowserontheiriPhoneandseeadocument
they were reading on their iPad earlier that
day and email it to a colleague, whose contact
details will be instantly available from that
iPhone – or any other of the user’s devices.
In terms of consumer service, Amazon’s
Cloud Player and Cloud Drive have a head
start over Apple iCloud of just a few months.
Meanwhile, a host of other providers are
targeting consumers: they include other digital
music services, from Spotify to We7, purchased
by Tesco in June 2012, and other cloud-
based storage services, such as Google Drive,
Microsoft SkyDrive and Dropbox. It is shaping
up to be a battle too close to call. n
Retailers are good at serving their customers
but aren’t necessarily very good at operating
and managing large-scale IT infrastructures
Carlos Conde, Amazon Web Services
In association with
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Programme highlights you cannot afford to miss:
1 Knocking your customers’ socks off: Surpassing customers’ expectations to increase loyalty and spend
2 Multichannel, cross-channel, omni-channel: Converging the space between offline and online
3 How will ecommerce change the future of retail?
4 Ecommerce in the Boardroom: Streamlining your digital offering for multichannel and moving from bricks to clicks
5 Profitable overseas expansion: Successfully leveraging your business internationally
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Gain a fresh perspective from the following experts:
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Executive Director Multi-
Channel E-Commerce
Simon Forster
Director
Richard
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CEO
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