Technology can be negative for some businesses or to be specific, some retailers (the ability to check prices online while shopping at a store) or it can be helpful. Either you are ready or not, IPad menus, interactive displays, and other innovative technological advancements are coming your way. You can get a discount at some stores or cafes just because you are “checked-in” on FourSquare. Free wi-fi became a natural accommodation, not a strange occurrence.
User interactive displays becoming more popular on larger and smaller scale. Knowing that there is something new and exciting waiting in a store creates a buzz which brings more people. Imagine that shoppers can go through merchandise while the store is closed by looking at the large IPhone-like display on the front of your store. Now, that’s something to talk about!
Starbucks interactive display In Canada.
Orange was one of the first retailers using interactive display utilizing the latest technology in 2007. Here is what an objective of that project was: “To create a new point of engagement and experience at their Carnaby Street store, one of London’s premiere flagship shopping destinations. Retail is expensive real estate – why shut up and go home every night when the shop front can work its own overtime?” Similar interactive window was made for Repetto store in Paris.
Repetto store in Paris, interactive display.
Apple is another innovative retailer, utilizing its own technology at the checkout points which are small devices in the hands of the sales people walking around the store. This eliminates the need of having a cash register, creating a friendlier environment and a feeling of freedom at the store.
Apple Store Interior Design. Image credit www.zimbio.com
My favorite innovations is for those who do not have time to shop, the P & G Virtual Drugstores recently opened in Prague are great way to buy on the go. One simply has to use their mobile phone to scan the code, and the groceries will be delivered to their home. So if you see huge posters of products for sale on the walls of the subway station, along with their prices and QR codes you can simply capture QR codes of the products you want to purchase using your mobile phone. You order will be sent to Mall.cz for fulfillment. P & G is guaranteeing free second-day delivery.
Some companies get creative placing QR codes right on furniture pieces or even on sports players’ heads! Utilizing more and better technology is definitely an ongoing trend in any business this year. The choice is yours how to use it and what will be more profitable in your industry.
Photo Credits www.trendhunter.com
To ask us questions about your project or to get a free consultation from Mindful Design Consulting, click HERE.
Also, take a look at “Branding By Interior” e-book, the only book written on this subject at this time. It brings insight on how you can turn your business into a market-dominating competitor by using some of the mentioned above cognitive responses.
