Are you ready for Black Friday later this week? Target certainly is.
After a 40 store trial earlier in 2014, Target stores nationwide will be rolling out a new, more functional app made possible through Point Inside’s StoreMode, according to Search Engine Land, that will give unparalleled access to consumers as well as allowing the major retailer to monetize more of its services through advertising.
For example, once a customer enters any of Target’s 2,000 North American retail locations, geofencing will automatically connect with their smart phone and give them access to a wide range of new consumer capabilities, including maps to the specific store that will show them the actual location of a product in its specific aisle.
Point Inside is powering the new app’s functionality, and has said that all of the “doorbuster” sale items that Target will feature on Black Friday will be plotted and easy to find on the app’s interactive map.
This new functionality has actually been implemented by Point Inside already in home improvement warehouse Lowe’s as well as major grocery chain Meijers. Pete Coleman, Point Inside’s EVP and general manager of its StoreMode technology platform, says that this added functionality is necessary when you consider that between 10% and 30% of consumers actually leave most retail stores without the product that they went there to purchase, simply because they couldn’t find it, and that in most cases the product is actually on the shelf.
Whether at Target or other retail locations, this increased functionality is also seen as a way to bring more customers into actual brick and mortar locations during the holiday season and beyond. Target’s main competitor, Walmart, offers a similar in-store search capability.
While it’s not being used at the moment, Point Inside says that this new technology will also allow retailers to monetize this in-app product search feature through advertising, something that you can bet they will begin to focus on once the craziness of the holiday season has passed.
The insight retailers stand to gain about product demand and user behavior is also seen as a key upshot, something that will benefit Target through the Holiday rush and beyond.
