Reviving Retail: Two Taps Away from Your Customer!
A word on the Physical Web
Showrooming: Friend or Foe?
Showrooming is purchasing a product online after inspecting it in a store first. Have you ever visited a shop to check out a product your were interested in, just to buy it later… but online and for less? Do you use your smartphone while shopping to look for online alternatives on the spot?
If yes, you’re a showroomer. Just like up to 85% of customers, research shows, who use their mobile devices while in a physical store.
Showrooming is of course costly to brick-and-mortar retailers: mobile-assisted customers enter the store, check out the products, look for lower prices online and then just leave without buying anything.
But can we blame people for doing that? It’s only natural that we seek the best price and quality. It would be truly unreasonable to expect customers
to settle for worse when given an alternative.
So should retailers try to fight the natural human desire to look for better options? Or should they adapt to the changing market and start perceiving showrooming as an opportunity rather than a threat?
Because let’s face it: it’s 2017 and people use their mobile devices in stores anyway. And since there is not much we can do about it, how can we actually benefit from people’s modern shopping habits and use them to our advantage? What if we could reach those mobile-savvy customers on their phones? What if we could convince them to stay in our store and actually buy the product they’ve been checking out and comparing on their smartphone?
This is where the Physical Web steps in. Scroll down to find out more.
Walk up and use anything
Google’s Physical Web might be just the answer to all those questions.
It’s a simple way of reaching people on their mobile devices with any content you create.
How does it work exactly? The Physical Web allows real life objects embedded with beacons to broadcast URLs to nearby devices. And what’s the greatest thing about it? You don’t need any apps to access the web content, just your mobile browser. So, with The Physical Web, the biggest issue beacons seem to have (the need to install apps) is simply gone.
When you approach a Physical Web beacon, the contextual information attached to it (a web page, to be specific) just pops up in your notification bar. All you need to do is have an active data connection and your Bluetooth and location turned on.
An example of The Physical Web? A movie poster with a beacon that broadcasts the movie’s trailer via URL. When you come near the poster,
the link just shows up on your smartphone.
For those who want to find out more about the technology, a great explainer video by Scott Jenson:
Let’s take a look at how the Physical Web works on Android phones now.
One tap and your web page is available to everyone around.
Now that we know how this all works and how simple it is, how can the Physical Web help retailers take advantage of showrooming? Read on!
Solve Showrooming with EON Beacon & Beeem!
Our newly launched partnership with Beeem here at Netizens is great news to brick-and-mortar stores. Why? Because combining the Physical Web solutions offered by Beeem with EON Beacon devices provided
by Netizens can help shop owners take advantage of showrooming in
a really easy way.
Beeem provides proximity-based landing pages allowing retailers to reach smartphone users — with no apps needed, no QR codes scanning, no typing in URLs whatsoever.
And what’s Netizens’ role here? We provide the beacons (on a subscription basis), but also constant technical support and maintenance. We got it all covered, beacons-wise.
Now how exactly does our combination work? Let’s imagine we are retailers for a sec:
- You create your Physical Web landing page using the Beeem platform.
It’s fast, user-friendly and allows you to manage your content easily.
You can add anything to your message engaging customers: images, videos, various time-limited discounts, polls, social media buttons… - Place a beacon in your store. Our EON Beacons now support the Physical Web and work seamlessly with Beeem-powered landing pages.
- When a showroomer enters the beacon’s broadcasting range, your landing page just pops up right in their notification bar. All the customer has to do is click it on their smartphone (See? No app, no QR codes, no typing! Your page is just a tap away, literally! A super smooth interaction). Voilà, you have now reached the mobile-savvy showroomer with your content. Chances are they are actually going to use the provided discount
(or something else you’ve prepared for them) and make their purchase right where they are: in your store. - You can change or update your landing pages anytime. Analyze, assess, retarget, get feedback, try something new.
But this is just the beginning. What’s coming up next?
The future is looking bright for Physical Web solutions. Right now, developers responsible for Google search results are working on making Physical web landing pages automatically appear in the search box within
the beacon’s range: when a showroomer searches for something using the keywords added to the beacon, our beacon-powered landing page will show up in the search box, like this:
In conclusion, the Physical Web is an easy way to attract people
to any digital content you create. And this could be priceless, especially for retailers.
People shop with their phones anyway. Use it. Physical Web solutions can really help you take advantage of showroomers and benefit from people’s modern shopping habits.
To us, The Physical Web is the next big thing in retail. If you want to test it out with us on a trial basis, just submit your e-mail here and we will be happy to contact you.
