Frank & Oak was born on the web. Now that it’s opening some physical stores, it’s giving employees tablets that enable them to take advantage of all the information the men’s clothing retailer has online about its products, and about what customers have purchased previously.
Employees can use the tablets to check out a shopper from anywhere in the store. But the main benefit of the tablets is that they enable store associates to provide better service, says CEO Ethan Song.
If a shopper has a Frank & Oak online account, an associate can pull up his information on the tablet and see what the customer has purchased, when he purchased and whether he previously bought in-store or online. The employee can also access how the shopper answered questions about his preferred styles, so that associates can direct him toward items likely to interest him. Employees can pull up this information with a shopper’s first and last name or email address. If a shopper doesn’t have an account, he can create one on the spot, by entering information into the employee’s tablet.
If an associate is working with a shopper who decides to purchase an item, the salesperson can scan an item with the tablet, swipe the customer’s credit card and send the receipt via email or print it out at a nearby wireless printer. The customer then doesn’t have to wait in line at the counter, Song says.
“The retail landscaping is changing, and customers want a different experience,” Song says. Checkout counters are also equipped with tablets that employees can use to take payment from shoppers. The tablets are equipped with software developed by mobile technology vendor Tulip Retail.
Frank & Oak launched online in 2012 and opened its first physical stores in 2013. Currently the retailer has two permanent and four pop-up stores. A pop-up store is a temporary physical location, where a retailer rents a vacant storefront and sets up shop with limited merchandise. In November 2014, the retailer equipped its sales associates with tablets. Song says the tablets have significantly increased the average ticket in Frank & Oak’s stores, though he would not say how much.
“We’ve noticed an increase in basket size because the in-store staff has more information,” Song says, although he declines to give specifics. Tulip CEO Ali Asaria says retailers who use its platform, such as GameStop Corp. and Toys ‘R’ Us Inc., on average see double-digit growth in basket size.
The tablet will also show inventory levels and details about the product. The software helps associates inform shoppers and answer their questions so they don’t leave the store to research products online or purchase somewhere else, Asaria says. Knowing employees will be showing shoppers what’s on the tablet’s screen, Tulip designed the software to be consistent with Frank & Oak’s brand.
“The industry is looking closely at online retailers who are going into the physical. They get to reinvent the value and the purpose of the store that traditional stores never could,” Asaria says.
Tulip software is web-based and works with Frank and Oak’s API and its mobile app. The software aggregates all of the retailer’s inventory, so employees know what is in stock and in which stores. So, for example a shopper can locate a product he wants in another store.
The software can also show the employee all of a customer’s shopping history and where he bought the products, such as in app or on a desktop. If a shopper describes a look to the employee, she can pull up examples on the tablet of Frank and Oak products that fit that look before traveling around the store.
The consumer shopping app has 400,000 users across Android and iOS as of mid-June.
Tulip uses pre-built connectors that is has already created for major e-commerce software providers, such as SAP SE and Magento Inc., to help aggregate all of a retailer’s data in one place. Tulip can still work with retailers that use other software or have developed their own e-commerce software, but the process takes longer, the vendor says.
Frank and Oak bought its own tablets and manages them itself. In general, the software costs tens of thousands of dollars per store annually, Asaria says.
Follow mobile business journalist April Dahlquist, associate editor, mobile, at Mobile Strategies 360, @Mobile360April
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