The Concept of "If-When". It keeps going & going & going & ...
The following was cut from the Storetech section of the current issue of cdngrocer.com. Given the quote at the end, Mr. Sweeney might well find dropping by Riviera with some "smoked meat on poor boys" to be a learned experience.
Store of the Future...Right Now
Toronto-based Classwave Wireless Inc. has developed a software package called Polyphony, which enables the delivery of content to Bluetooth-enabled wireless devices such as cell phones and personal data assistants. (Bluetooth, a new technology that allows wireless devices to communicate with each other, is expected to be widely adopted within the next two to three years.) When a customer walks into a store and passes a device on the wall called a SNAP--that's a smart network access point--the customer can choose to make use of the information that's sent by the store directly through its device.
Want to advise customers about featured products that you already know interest them (thanks to their existing profiles), or about other promotions or recipe tips? Classwave's solution, which will be piloted early next year in Canada, makes this possible. Tom Sweeney, the company's president and CEO, believes the range of targeted marketing that grocers can deliver to customers with this solution will be limited only by the limits of their own imagination. He envisions a day when grocers can offer the transmission of their customers' favourite music right to their headsets as they shop. Now that's a value-added service.
Being able to interact with your customers on an entirely different level will soon be a reality. Classwave's Sweeney says the number one priority for grocers must be to accept the coming changes and prepare. After all, he says, "the question about this entire concept is not if it will be deployed, it's when." |
