Within ShopLocal’s SmartCircular suite of solutions, there are two main options that retail advertisers pick from. A more simple SmartCircular 2.0 site or a more engaging and feature rich SmartCircular 4.1 site.
Coming soon to clients that are currently using the SmartCircular 2.0 solution for their weekly ads is a entirely rebuilt from the ground up animated page turning component. With this new Adobe Flex/Flash based animated circular page turning component (that internally here at ShopLocal is called the hybrid movie), the following are some of the key benefits that this new release delivers on (in no particular order):
Deep integration into ShopLocal’s publisher ad server (DFP) so that those retailers that choose to deploy display ads around the content within their circular site, every possible page view generated by users can now have a banner ad served, thereby maximizing revenue generation
Much improved web analytic integration and event queuing/firing mechanisms which will have higher accuracy in some fringe use cases
New smart page slider bar with visual look ahead and progress bar meter. Also this page slider bar dynamically appears below really long circular pages to help with vertical page scroll usability issues
Re-worked back end data integration so that the robust SDAPI is now powering the animated page turning experience
Rollover impression tracking is enabled automatically and will aide wisdom of the crowds accuracy rates
Reduced ongoing maintenance costs for both ShopLocal and the retailer
Quicker time to market for any new features that either ShopLocal or the retailer wants to deploy
Here is the front cover of a circular being displayed within the updated animated page turning component. Notice the enhanced UI of the page turning component and the addition of a page slider bar.
Here is a spread or two page view with the page slider visual look ahead feature engaged. This will allow users to get a better idea of what is contained within an specific page without first having to actual turn there.
Within a limited number of Canadian Tire physical stores, a test is now underway to see how in store shoppers react and use a new touch screen Fujitsu kiosk that enables them to browse the weekly flyer (ShopLocal powered of course) among a product locator, price verifier and browsing the CanadianTire.com site.
It’s exciting to see high engagement technologies creep back into the physical retailer world. There is a real un-tapped value proposition that retailers need to capitalize on of blurring the lines between the different channels.
Canadian Tire has done a great job of creating a strong visual identify around these kiosks which are called iShop by wrapping the rather boring looking, underlying kiosk in a "skin" of sorts that definitely is more inviting to shoppers.
Here is the "un-wrapped" (or non-branded) Fujitsu made touch screen kiosk that is internet enabled that is being deployed into two (2) Canadian Tire stores on a limited test basis.
The book sellers (Borders and Barnes & Noble) for example has been doing exactly this for a number of years by allows in store shoppers to break free from the limitations of the books available for sale in the physical store to the countless millions more available within the online store by utilizing kiosks. This just makes so much sense, and prevents a shopper whom didn’t see the book in store from going home an ordering it on Amazon.com.
The Canadian Tire use of the flyer (that is what Canadian’s call circulars or inserts) within these Fujitsu kiosks is very similar to the problem that Ecast is also trying to solve. In that, wayfinding (i.e., digital in store maps) combined with engaging “what’s on sale right now” content is a great way to help create motivation for a shopper to visit areas of a store that they may not typically travel to. It also aides in new product discovery as the currently on sale products can be highlighted and showcased. In addition, it is expected to decrease the number of abandoned baskets and increase customer satisfaction as shoppers can now get the answer to their #1 most asked question of, “Where can I find product X?”
No shopper inputs (of for example a postal code) are required
No category, brand, keyword search, shopping list, store details or 25 other different views are offered. Just simple circular / flyer ad page viewing and turning
Integration was the other theme which allowed:
Tying into an interactive store maps and in store inventory called iPAL (made by TreoSystems) that creates a seamless product locator action by simply clicking on any of the items within the flyer
For the store’s postal code to be passed into the weekly flyer application so as to take away a dumb user input from occurring
This is the main flyer view that offers a single page by page, animated page turning mode to browsing the Canadian Tire on sale items. All of this flyer content is of course locally geo-targeted to the specific store location of where the kiosk is located.
From within the interactive flyer, a simple help layer can be accessed at any point to aide any customers that need additional instructions on how to navigate the kiosk version of the Canadian Tire SmartCircular site.
By clicking on any product that is contained within the interactive flyer, the user is taken to an visual map of where that specific item
Masha Sajdeh of Arc Worldwide presented a great piece of brand new multichannel research at the In-Store Marketing Expo that took place here in Chicago last week. This studies methodology and sample was a solid:
3 countries
5,609 respondents
60 minute online survey
20 categories of products examined
10 unique channels probed
The entire Arc multichannel study is worth a careful read, but due to it’s length (57 pages) we’ll only examine a few portions that pertain to better understand which channel different types of multichannel shoppers are using and why.
For those not familuar with the concept of what multichannel shopping is all about, this is a great visual explanation.
So first let’s examine a few of the insights uncovered around how much time different multichannel shoppers spend per channel on a monthly basis. Surprisingly, the circular is the channel that showed the highest usage across all of the different types of mutlichannel shoppers (excluding a retailer’s own web site and store).
Note how the circular across all types of multichannel shoppers plays a critical role in adding the shopping process.
If we take a closer look at just the medium and heavy mutlichannel shoppers, the picture becomes even more stark. A retailer’s own web site and physical store are used heavily and fairly equally by both types. However the usage pattern around circulars is very different with heavy multichannel shoppers (arguable the most desirable and profitable type of shopper) using the circulars 95% of the time, which is higher than the retailer’s own web site. Even the more moderate mutlichannel shoppers are using the circulars at pretty hefty rates of 61%, which when again compared to a retailer’s own web site usage of 69% clearly demonstrates the continued importance of the circular to multichannel shoppers.
Wow, circulars are nearly as used by heavy multichannel shoppers as a retailers own physical stores!
Finally let’s try to get to the bottom of the ‘why’ – in this case, the ‘why’ is what causes these multichannel shoppers to use which channel when. Not surprising, circulars are all about saving money. Catalogs on the other hand are all about providing shoppers with inspiration.
Every single channel has a unique use and value proposition to a multichannel shopper.
Looking for some inspiration on what a weekly ad desktop application could be like? Here is a demo video (sorry, no sound) that showcases was may be possible as far as front end user interface (UI) / user experience (UX) presentations around print content. Let your imagination run wild as the possibilities using this new technology are near endless.
This entire (Anthropologie) print catalog was brought to life with Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR which provides a cross-OS run time environment that allows applications to run outside of the browser. Sounds geeky right? Ask yourself if these type of features are of interest to your business and users, as all of these amazing benefits are only available via desktop applications built via Adobe AIR and then answer the above question.
Offline / Online Capabilities – Have a flight but still want to look at the weekly ad for your home? Not a problem with an AIR app. All the required data is stored locally and temporarily cached on your machine and then refreshed the next you an internet connection is established
Permanent Position – No clutter. No distractions. No ads. No stop or back button. It’s just your application and the user. By going the route of a desktop application, your brand and content is exposed to the user in a manner more intimate than anything experienced in a browser. Your application will now be an icon on their desktop. Your application will now be on their ‘Start’ menu. By having a user choose to download and install your desktop application, it is showing a great deal of trust and interest in your brand and content on the user’s part
Full Screen – No browser navigation, status bar, scroll bars junking up the UI/UX. AIR apps can take over the entire screen
Nifty comparison chart that highlights the differences between and browser and desktop application
(4.00 out of 5)
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