The Genie is out of the Bottle (and its name is d-POS)

admin POS, RETAIL, TECHNOLOGY

In case you hadn’t noticed, the rules of business have changed. A healthy profit is no longer the sole driver for a successful business. To stay competitive you also need to be innovative with information.

Digital-POS (d-POS) provides the capability to incorporate real-time data into a personalised customer experience. At present, major retailers such as M&S and Primark are only using interactive digital signage to deliver high quality advertising content. There seem to be few early adopters with the appetite to exploit the richer d-POS potential as a dynamic sales tool. Caution among retailers is understandable if the focus is purely on installation and infrastructure costs, and the as yet unproven path to ROI.

However, the utilisation of d-POS creates a powerful brand story in itself. For example, Pizza Hut combined eye-tracking software with digital pizza selection to create ‘the world’s first Subconscious Menu’. Pizza recommendations were both quick and accurate (a 98% enjoyment rate was reported), thanks to the speed and granularity of data. Pizza Hut’s head of marketing, Kathryn Austin, has described it as, “…A unique way to reinvent the dining experience.”

The Dandy Lab in London’s Spitalfields is another d-POS pioneer, using software to determine a customer’s demographic and creating a mobile shopping app where products can be matched to a user’s photograph. Co-founder Julija Bainiaksina’s vision is to, “…Create a peronsalised shopping experience for customers that translates into tangible sales for brands.”
D-POS will surely emerge as a service sector in its own right because the technology is so malleable. One of retail’s tropes is ‘know your customer’ and beacons offer a way to know your customers at both a macro and a micro level. Real-time sales data is the great game changer, enabling retailers to identify trends, to prove the effectiveness of targeted promotions and campaigns, and to make business sense from your customers’ behaviour.

Entry into the new sector will become easier. Major technology players Panasonic and CISCO are already at the forefront of hardware supply and Microsoft – the driving force behind big data – has recently launched a cloud computing service for retail-POS within a wider retailer proposition. Switching to d-POS will also deliver significant savings on traditional costs, such as POS print, production, transport and installation.

The Internet of Everything has transformed the world of retail forever. Site Audits can transform your data into granular business intelligence that’s timely, relevant and valuable. The way we see it there are exciting times ahead and enhanced ROI up for grabs!