Grocery And Convenience Store IT News For VARs — May 15, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In the news, tests are under way on a “smart fridge” that leverages augmented reality, facial recognition, social media, and mobile to dole out relevant offers and content to specific consumers in-store. Also articles provide ideas for how grocery and convenience store retailers can leverage technology and data analytics to increase productivity, boost sales, and reduce costs.
Coca-Cola Testing “Smart Fridge”
According to Mobile Marketer, Coca-Cola Australia is testing a new type of interactive refrigerator that leverages augmented reality, facial recognition, social media, and mobile to dole out relevant offers and content to specific consumers in-store. The soda giant’s initiative is the latest example of the growing momentum in mobile to extend the in-store shopping experience beyond smartphones and tablets into other types of devices. The appliances include digital screens and a camera. The technology lets marketers push out coupons, promotional material, and games based on data that is gleamed from the appliance, such as a shopper’s emotion.
Tips For Improving Grocery Store Productivity With Technology
Coin, currency, and check processing technology company Cummins Allison gives advice for how to help you grocery store clients leverage technology to improve productivity. Making self-service coin machines available and increasing efficiency with cash counters are two options.
3 Convenience Store Retailers Provide Examples Of Data Analytics Benefits
Three c-store retailers spoke at the Conexxus technical conference about the benefits of data analytics. Point of sale data is analyzed to track voids and price overrides, loyalty program metrics help retailers make decisions related to marketing and customer engagement, and data on product movement can alert retailers to anomalies in sales that require attention.
Grocery and Convenience Store IT Talking Points
In an interesting twist on the use of loyalty cards, CBC News reported that disease detectives in British Columbia were able to spot and halt an outbreak of hepatitis A infections in that province in early 2012 by comparing the foods the infected people had bought in previous months. Those food purchasing histories were compiled from their grocery story loyalty cards; pomegranate seeds in a frozen fruit mix were eventually identified as the source of the infection.
Checks Remain a popular form of payment, despite growing digital options. This report from the Progressive Grocer highlights how retailers can continually be prepared to efficiently handle the influx of check payments. An earlier Federal Reserve Payments Study revealed that 79 percent of consumers would never consider using Bitcoin or other new forms of currency. Broad acceptance, enhanced security that protects consumer information and the ease-of-use are just a few reasons that retailers are still seeing such high numbers of check payments. This article offers tips on how to handle that traffic.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Grocery and Convenience Store Tech Center.