Sensor and Beacon Technology in Fashion
FOMO can be tough to manage, especially when you're feeling the pressure to keep up with trends and customer expectations. For fashion businesses, this can highlight risks internally and externally.
It's an exciting time, we all know technology is changing at a rapid pace, said every speaker at every conference in the last 5 years. It's like being a kid in a toy store and confidently justifying why that particular toy is a necessity - enter stage left shiny new thing.
The first part of justification is defining why you need it, what new technology to invest in, when it should be implemented and at what point will it benefit the customer during their purchase journey. Then validating the assumption to find out if customers want to use it. Ideally, you'd be at this point because your team were able to analyse data and identify a gap in the experience that could be improved if *insert tech here* was added to the mix. If that's not the case, all is not doomed, there is hope for your business yet.
Here's an overview of new tech being integrated throughout the retail experience:
Sensor technology - enables retailers to observe a heat map, tracking movement of customers and where they're spending most of their time in store. This is a great opportunity to recognise low, medium and high traffic areas and map back to visual merchandise displays, stock (current, new, sale), and what needs updating to invite customers into those areas with low engagement.
Beacons - tiny devices that use Bluetooth technology to connect with an individual via digital signage and push notifications. Proximity marketing can be personalised based on a customer's communication preference and specific product interests. Retailers can promote content such as new, suggested products, sale items and vouchers. Click through to read about three ways beacon tech personalises the in-store experience.
Many retailers are scrambling to offer more personalised interactions, the only way to do this is by capturing and translating data into outcomes. Consequently, the technology mentioned above feeds data back to a system and that can be a good and bad thing.
Good if you are segmenting information to a team who have a strategy in place with underlying processes to measure and improve. Bad if you don't have a view of where it's going or how to use it to create better experiences.
You won't have to worry about suffering from FOMO as a retailer if you observe how people wander your store and listen to what they're asking for. By ensuring a balance of people and tech in the business, you'll start to see innovation and engagement increase and that's just the start.
If you're interested in knowing more about how to reach your customers using sensors and beacons, feel free to email info@fashionadvisors.co.
Written by Saskia Fairfull, Founding Member