Furniture retailer Value City Furniture was looking for a way to let consumers comfortably browse through its stores and get the information they want without the help of store employees.
The retailer found an answer with mobile technology, says Stephen Haffer, chief information officer at Value City Furniture.
Haffer equipped four stores in Columbus, Ohio, with geofencing, which allows a retailer to draw a digital fence around areas of his store. That allows Value City to know which furniture display the shopper is looking at and for how long. Shelf tags were equipped with the wireless technology known as Near Field Communication, or NFC. That enables shoppers with NFC-equipped tablets to put the device close to a tag to obtain information about a piece of furniture, such as colors it comes in or when it could be delivered. About 80% of its pieces at its stores in Columbus have the NFC tags.
Finally, it provides shoppers with tablets. The typical customer taps three or four tags to get more information.
“Our customers feel like they are empowered and feel less intimidated in terms of browsing,” Haffer says. “They’ve stayed in our store longer, is what I have observed, and feel more in control of the shopping experience.”
What’s more, customers who shop with a tablet spend 20% more than customers who do not Haffer says.
Value City also geofenced its store so that it receives an alert if a shopper walks out with a tablet. Luckily, that hasn’t happened yet, Haffer says.
Value City has placed six tablets in each of its Ohio stores. Sales associates at the stores first ask the shopper if she needs help. If the shopper says she just wants to browse, the associate offers her a tablet to aid in browsing. If the shopper says yes, she then reads a few slides or watches a video to understand how it works. She does not have to login or create an account to start using the tablet.
When a shopper is done using the tablet, she has the option to input her email address. 17% of Value City shoppers using the tablets choose to provide an email address, and 95% of those email addresses have been new to the retailer. Shoppers who provide their addresses receive an email with pictures, prices and additional information on the furniture pieces they tapped. Those emails have a 23% click-through-rate for the furniture retailer. Value City also retargets those customers with more emails.
Value City used mobile technology company CloudTags for the pilot program. Value City pays CloudTags for each email address it receives. The cost is about 30-40% more than the retailer would normally pay to acquire a customer email address, says James Yancey, CEO and co-founder of CloudTags. Businesses also can choose to pay outright for the service, and then it is typically $1,500 to $3,500 per store, Yancey says.
CloudTags created the new furniture tags and system for Value City to use. The process took about 90 days, Haffer says.
Value City is expanding the CloudTags program to its Chicago and Atlanta stores soon, Haffer says.
Follow mobile business journalist April Dahlquist, associate editor, mobile, at Mobile Strategies 360, @Mobile360April
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