Business Plan: Combining Online & Retail Shopping through Mobile Solutions
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Chin-I Lin, Pierre
Abstract
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: AISLECONNECT™
PROBLEM STATEMENT
As consumer spending increases, there is a commensurate increase in the amount of available merchandise accessible to him by vendors in grocery stores, book stores, shopping complexes, etc. As a result, when a shopper enters any store today, she is bombarded by a plethora of items she can purchase. Simply put, consumers face a problem with “search” when they go shopping nowadays. It is already challenging to find the right store to shop at. The next problem is one of productivity and planning. Shoppers spend too much time shopping just doing random browsing and stores are taking advantage of that by strategically placing items (collocating them) to entice shoppers. Online shopping, in contrast, is a breeze. You do a search for products you wish to buy, and out comes the product in plain view, allowing you to see all its gory details before you commit to buying. Further, advertizing items during online shopping can get very relevant.
OUR SOLUTION
AisleConnect™ strives to combine the ease of shopping online with the immersiveness of being at a physical store where you can feel and try products in person, to deliver the best user experience to a shopper. Now with the pervasiveness of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, imagine a consumer walking into a retail store with their iPhone and is presented with an interface that allows them browse and search for items alongside the aisles. They proceed to search for all the items that they wish to purchase and build a checklist, made up of only items that are available in the store. With a simple swipe, she is able to find relevant information about the product she is looking at, or ask the application for a map of the store with the locations of the various items on their checklist, and optionally plot out a path for her to facilitate their search for her desired products.
At the same time, recommendations in the form of non-invasive notifications suggest other items to them based on what she searched, her shopper profile (what she has configured online previously), what she have purchased in previous trips, what she has purchased just now, and what other people are purchasing in her social network. For example, if a shopper has hot dogs on their list, AisleConnect™ may suggest buns for her if it’s not already on the list.
As she makes her way to these items, the application’s automatic scanner allows them to add said items into her digital shopping cart (before putting the actual items in the physical shopping cart). As more items appear in the cart, new recommendations appear, to help the shopper economize (e.g. by buying a different brand), or to suggest other items relevant to the current cart. As they proceed to checkout, the system already knows everything that had been scanned so the checkout clerk doesn''t need to take everything out of the cart and re-scan everything again – saving time for both the shopper and the retailer.
Subjects
Mobile
Application
M-Commerce
Shopping
Type
thesis
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