Ted Baker introduces communicating mannequins to Westfield store
Ted Baker is introducing new 24/7 beacon technology to its Westfield White City store that enables customers to communicate with in-store mannequins via their smartphones as the creator predicts the technology can become commonplace within UK retailers.
Customers who download the free Iconeme app (for Android and iOS) will receive a push notification when in a 50m range of a Ted Baker’ bluetooth enabled mannequin.
The mannequin’s message will give out details about the relevant clothes and accessories on display, while also providing the option to purchase the items directly from Ted Baker’s retail website and check on in-store stock levels.
“We strive to ensure that the customer shopping experience is as seamless and engaging as possible when it comes to in-store technology,” said Scott Taylor, CRM manager at Ted Baker.
The high street fashion retailer says it plans to roll-out the mannequin technology across its estate later on in the year.
Long seen as a convention within dodgy horror movies, talking mannequins can become ‘game-changing’ for British retailers, according to Iconeme.
“This type of technology is truly game-changing, as for the first time it allows brands to communicate directly with shoppers while they browse, bridging the gap between off and online retail,” said Jonathan Berlin, CEO of Iconeme, who says it is close to launching the technology in several additional high profile retailers in the UK and U.S.
Iconeme has already rolled out the beacon enabled mannequins to fashion retailers including House of Fraser and Oasis, and Berlin says they can become ‘commonplace’ on the high street.
For this new marketing strategy, I found advantages and challenges.
As advantages, this system expands the range of place that has the Ted Baker’s advertisements. Usually, mannequins are set in front of the retail store. However, in this case, consumers notice which brand’s cloths the mannequins were no matter where those are because consumers receive notification on their smartphones. If they purchase the clothes that they are looking at through the online store at this moment, this is a new type of shopping: neither in-store shopping nor online shopping. This shopping style has benefits of both existed shopping style because they do not need to step into the store, but they can still look at the actual products. Another advantage is that it may acquire consumers who know what they want but do not know which brand they want. If they receive notification of cloths that they are looking for, they do not need to consider which stores they are going to. Yet, as challenge, this system has following. How do the marketers encourage consumers to download this Iconeme app? I am sure that big fans of the Ted Bakers do not hesitate to download the app, but also, those people go to the store, even without the app. Another consideration is about notifications. If consumers get too many notifications, it annoys them, especially when these are not related to what they are looking for. Once it starts to annoy people, they are going to delete the app.