Archive for the ‘POS’ Category

The Next Wave of Augmented Reality

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Obviously I love augmented reality, as evidenced in previous posts. I first posted about it months ago with GE’s Ecomagination commercial on the Super Bowl, and a couple month’s later when magician, Marco Tempest, used the technology to make his slight-of-hand magic even more amazing.

Now, SPRXmobile in Amsterdam has begun exploring a practical application of this technology, as you’ll see in this demo:

Their product, Layar, is a video-mode application that works with your 3G phone and its GPS system, plus a compass and an accelerometer, also both built-in to the phone. These elements work to establish your position on the planet, which direction your phone is facing and its angle or tilt. With that information, the application is able to pull data feeds that are relevant to the environment you’re viewing through the video display.

Wonder what the reviews have been like for the restaurant you’re standing in front of? Or maybe if there are any apartments for rent in that building nearby?

All kinds of relevant data will be available, and presented in a visually appealing, 3D context relative to the environment you’re viewing through your phone’s video camera, turning that view into a detailed and highly engaging dynamic interface.

Here’s the original article on CNN that talks about it.


Lovin’ dis big time, mon.


KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Posted in POS, browsers, customer experience, innovation, mobile, navigation, online marketing, user interface | No Comments »

Customer Experience Index Favors Retailers

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Forrester’s Bruce Temkin just posted the results of Forrester’s second annual Customer Experience Index, or CxPi. Consumers were asked in October 2008 to rate companies on the basis of: 1) usefulness; 2) ease of use; and 3) enjoyability.

Here are the results across 12 industries:

Apparently the retail industry can take a page from booksellers as the model for customer satisfaction as Barnes & Noble was the top overall performer, and Border’s was also in the top 5.

On the other end of the spectrum is Charter Communications, one of the nation’s largest ISP’s. They are at the bottom of the ratings for the second year in a row. Hard to imagine them retaining their market share given that type of performance, except where they have a cable or telephone stranglehold on the market.

Here’s the whole report.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

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Posted in ISP's, POS, crm, customer experience, online marketing, roi and analytics | No Comments »

ComScore Validates Online Ad Effectiveness

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Over the past couple of years, it’s become increasingly difficult to defend display advertising effectiveness. With CTR’s falling to less than .1%, and industry averages as low as .03% range, marketers rightfully ask whether this investment makes any sense at all when money is so tight.

ComScore

Last week ComScore presented a study at Wharton that should give marketers another way to look at display advertising.

Titled “How Online Advertising Works” ComScore found that display advertising provided lift of:

  • +46% in marketer’s site visitation
  • +38% in brand search queries
  • +27% in brand online purchases
  • +17% in brand retail purchases

We’ve been recommending display advertising as a replacement for certain television dayparts and to reach individuals with lower TV viewership tendencies. In most cases, the percent spend for display is somewhere around 10% of clients’ budgets.

Considering the reach potential of display advertising, particularly when compared to search, display should continue to be part of most clients’ overall media mix.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

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Posted in POS, customer experience, display advertising, online marketing, roi and analytics, search stuff | No Comments »

The Computer in My Finger?

Thursday, October 4th, 2007

In the next couple of years, we will be as one with our bluetooth…literally.

At the CEATEC show in Tokyo, the gadgetry is always several years ahead of what we see in the US, and this year’s no different.

Apparently the thin profile HD TV’s are a huge hit. But most remarkable to me is the way they’re exploring using a human body interface to perform what is ostensibly a credit card or debit transaction.

Japan already has widespread application of using cell phones as the medium through which certain purchases are processed. But because some people there apparently find it to be a hassle to dig out their phone every time they want to make a purchase, Japanese electronics firms are developing a wireless interface that sends an electrical current through a human body such that you can touch a sensor and complete a transaction through your finger!

As Johnny Carson used to say, “this is weird, wild stuff.”

Check it out in John Boyd’s post in Spectrum Online.

Talk about increasing impulse purchases. (sorry)

Anything that lowers the speedbumps between a consumer and their purchase is good for business. And this demonstrates that wearable computing and communications technology are going to continue to evolve and get more astounding.

Just don’t use this if you’re standing in a puddle or you’re at one of those Jamaican swim-up bars. You’ll either get the shock of your life, or your finger will be spitting out $50′s for a $15 rum drink.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

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Posted in POS, customer experience, innovation, mobile, online marketing | No Comments »

NextGen Tracking – Don’t Fear the Zebra

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
This is fascinating from a point-of-sale standpoint. Today’s smartmobs had an article by Roland Piquepaille about using RFID chips and a social-networking tracking program to monitor a zebra herd so as to better understand how they react as a group to different situations.
He jokes at the end that this could be the next way to evaluate mall shopping patterns by fixing shoppers with RFID collars and tracking their navigation from store to store.

I’m not sure if he was serious, but with cell phone having both the capability to be GPS tracked and make purchases, it doesn’t take a genius to see that this type of behavioral tracking, combined with actual purchase data is going to happen before we get out of Iraq.

I’m not sure I want to begin thinking about the privacy issues, but as far as cool customer insight for the bricks and mortar crowd, this is just about at the top of the pile.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

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Posted in POS, customer experience, innovation, online marketing, roi and analytics | No Comments »

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