NEW YORK ? A GameStop executive at the NRF 105th Annual Convention & Expo explained how the retailer values sensors versus GPS technology for in-store activations and limits outreach to two notifications for a more relevant experience with fewer service availability issues.

During the "Reach In-store Shoppers on #1 Device: Mobile" panel, the executive detailed how the in-store customer journey can really be elevated through the use of mobile for consumers who shop with their smartphones in hand, but it is important to balance what is relevant to each customer. The retailer is leveraging sensor and beacon technology to activate a store-mode experience for mobile users, limited two notifications per store visit as to keep customers interested without overloading them.

"In the physical space we have to accomplish signage marketing within physical space constraints, so when you think about walking into a store there is only so many places you can put a sign depending on the retailer," said Charlie Larkin, senior director of GameStop technology at GameStop, Inc. "But when you get into the digital world whether it is mobile, online, etc., all of a sudden you have infinite space to deliver messaging to customers. 

"So that same moderation that we are forced into because of limited space in the physical world, you really need to think about in the digital world," he said. "If someone walked into our stores we could send them a push notification every second for their entire visit, but they would probably uninstall our app.

"It would create a really bad experience."

Retail responsibilities
The retailer?s goal is to reach the consumer at the right place at the right time during their customer journey, providing a helpful experience rather than an intrusive one. GameStop focuses on filtering content served to consumers that is most likely to be helpful to that person, which can be assisted through the use of beacons and sensors.



When it comes to in-store signage for various brands and marketing pushes, there is limited space, but with mobile and digital there is endless physical space to share this type of content. But overloading consumers with branded content will cause them to gloss over the information, and provide a negative connotation.

The retailer?s job is to filter this in-store and out-of-store content on mobile, and to provide something that is of high value to that individual customer. GameStop?s sensors have the ability to track the sheer volume of traffic and demographic information coming into a bricks-and-mortar location and use beacons to ping user?s phones with relevant offers.

The technology can track that a customer is standing in a store and what products they are standing near. For users who have downloaded the GameStop app, the retailer can serve them push notifications based on that info such as video game trailers, in-store offers, product promotions, etc.

In-store and out-of-store
GameStop is using in-store signage to get consumers to take advantage of these in-store abilities, and found that explaining the value of what downloading the app can do for the individual shopper works best for inciting installs. The retailer saw that going into details on how it works was less useful for customers, but advertising what the customers can get out of the call-to-action is most successful.



It has also been successful for GameStop to install experiences in which users request promotional offers and in-store content. Mr. Larkin believes that retailers need to be respectful of users? devices and limit the amount of pushes to consumers.

"The role of the retailer is to moderate that in terms of frequency in the messages to the customer, but also the relevance and the personalization of that message to the customer," Mr. Larkin said. "So what is delivered to the customer must be relevant to them, the frequency must be something that meets the expectations that they have opted into, and is not something that is spam in anyway.

"From the retailer's perspective, we have a really big role to play here because the majority of the responsibility falls on us to make sure the customer experience meets expectations," he said.