SmartStores » admin

Fake Chinese Apple store renamed Smart Store

admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 23:07:19 +0000

Smart Store China

The fake, lookalike Apple store in China has been renamed following a crackdown by local officials.

Shxb.net has posted news (in Chinese), which sparked international interest following a blog post that revealed its resemblance to Apple’s stores. Gone is the name “Apple Store” which has been replaced with “Smart Store”.

Internet of things’ to improve infrastructure

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:41:59 +0000

Even as much of the tech world fixates on running out of Internet addresses, Deborah Magid from IBM’s venture capital group predicts many more devices not traditionally considered computers will join the Internet.

IBM is seeking to work with governments around the world to tackle societal problems on big projects, such as improving water distribution systems, reducing city traffic congestion, or making the electric grid more reliable and efficient. The computing giant, which makes more than half of its revenue from consulting-led engagements, is also involved in environmental projects, such as monitoring water quality in Galway Bay in Ireland and the Hudson River in New York.

In many of these projects, the proliferation of computing power into more and more devices, often called the “Internet of things,” opens up new possibilities. “You can put technology into places that you could never do before,” said Magid, who says there are already trillions of sensors in use today. “Then you have a foundation to do things that many customers don’t realize is possible.”

Companies, including IBM, have been talking about the Internet of things, or pervasive computing, for many years. But cheaper processors and a higher penetration of broadband networking is making that idea more of a reality, if gradually. The growth of cloud-computing services feeds the trend because embedded processors can now report data to back-end computers systems. For example, adding more sophisticated sensors along the transmissions lines of the electricity grid can collect electricity data, such as voltage and current, and alert grid operators to potential problems before they occur

Smart Stores Will Make Smarter Shoppers

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:35:07 +0000

As retailers are faced with the growing challenge and opportunity to educate consumers, more and more organizations are turning to technology for answers. Although websites can offer a wealth of information on a category such as organic foods, and even specific information and benefits around products within the category, it is difficult to guarantee that this information will get into the hands of the consumer. The following are three types of technologies to look out for that are being developed with high hopes to impact sales by offering information at the point of decision (POD).

http://www.millbrookds.com/prod_internet/millbrook_news/062007-1.asp

Mirror lets your reflection try on clothes

admin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:53:24 +0000

Clothes shoppers wanting to experience the 21st-century version of dress-up have until November to try on the new Macy’s Magic Fitting Room in the retail chain’s New York’s Herald Square flagship store.

The company is showing off a 72-inch mirror display that enables you to superimpose clothing on your reflection. The mirror features a multitouch screen that lets you select items such as tops, dresses, bottoms, and coats. After making a choice, the item covers your reflection, making it look like you’re actually wearing the garb. Swimming in that shirt? Simply touch the mirror to take it down a size.

Macy’s calls the Magic Fitting Room the future of retail, and this does seem to be the case, as more retailers adopt augmented-reality solutions for clothing and shoes.

Digital In-Store Ad Network Works uses RFID

admin — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:24:32 +0000

Novitaz, a company that provides marketing research services to the retail and hospitality industries, is preparing to launch a loyalty card containing an active 433 MHz RFID tag complying with the ISO 18000-7 standard. The NovitazInside Card would enable brands and retailers to provide targeted promotional offers and discount coupons to consumers, based on their spending habits.

If the system works as expected and is well-received by the stores and their customers, Novitaz hopes to make the deployment permanent, add additional Santana Row stores into the network, and begin marketing the solution to retailers nationwide.

RFID Microchip TV advertisment

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:49:21 +0000

Would you consider an implanted microchip? Some believe that the world is heading for a future where citizens are chipped and as a result will be monitored and even controlled.

The chip is seen as the key to the modern world in that if you were unchipped, then doors won’t open for you, (literally and symbolically), you cannot purchase or sell anything, and you have no access to medical facilities.

Such a future seems frightening, but with manipulation of governments and media with subjects like terrorism, kidnapping, medical help, hacking crimes, credit card fraud, and identity theft, it may be that people will demand this technology in the name of ’safety’.

If this world does eventuate, then you could imagine that the initial advertisements for being chipped would be as friendly as possible given that it is such a controversial technology.

Does this sound far-fetched to you though? If so, then check out this real advertisement. This might help to convince you that being chipped is a real service. Also, note how the advert comes across as caring and helpful.

Wal-Mart to Embed RFID Tags in Clothing

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 03:56:44 +0000

Beginning August 1, men’s blue jeans and underwear sold at Walmart will carry electronic radio identification tags. The company, the world’s largest retailer, insists the devices are crucial to improving the logistics of inventory management, while critics point to the privacy concerns associated with the tags.

The markers in question, called radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, are implanted in the garments and can be read by hand-held scanners. Wal-Mart officials praise the portability of the tags and the boost in speed and accuracy they bring to inventory control. “This ability to wave the wand and have a sense of all the products that are on the floor or in the back room in seconds is something that we feel can really transform our business,” crows Raul Vasquez, Wal-Mart’s representative for its stores in the western states.

RFID tags are nothing new at Walmart (or many other retailers). Until now, however, the tags were chiefly used to track pallets of goods from factory to warehouse to the local outlet. After August 1, though, for the first time Walmart will bring the technology out of the storeroom and into the consumer’s pants — literally.

Smartphones Heralding New Era of Smart Shopping

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:32:02 +0000

Three years after the launch of the first iPhone, the advent of “mobile connectivity” is profoundly shaking up the way consumers shop, according to new research from PriceGrabber.co.uk(R). Not just online, but in stores too, as a growing army of ‘smart shoppers’ are arriving in stores equipped with Internet enabled Smartphones.

Whilst these devices might be small, they still have the capacity to spend big. Of the 908 online shoppers that were asked about their mobile shopping habits, 66 percent owned a Smartphone or another Web-enabled phone. Of the consumers who shop from their mobile, nearly half (48 percent) claim that the convenience of having the Internet with them wherever they go is their number one reason for smart shopping.

PriceGrabber.co.uk’s research found that of the consumers that own a Web-enabled mobile phone:

24 percent compare or check prices from their mobile phone
22 percent research product details and specifications from their Mobile phone
16 percent purchase online from their mobile phone
9 percent check product availability
5 percent access online discount vouchers

Apple patent seeks to reinvent retail

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:18:55 +0000

Apple has filed a sweeping patent application for a technology suite designed to provide iPhone users with a broad range of real-time product information, special offers, sales opportunities, and related services in stores, restaurants, and other retail establishments.

The filing also points to the inclusion of near-field communication (NFC) technology in upcoming iPhones.

The system described relies primarily on two methods of obtaining information on products or services: a reader using the aforementioned NFC tech to get data from an RFID or its equivalent placed on a product, owners manual, point-of-sale device or display, and the like; or a matrix bar code to be read by the iPhone’s camera and decoded by an iPhone app or iOS element. Both an RFID or a matrix bar code, of course, would need to be placed on the product by their manufacturer.

Product information could also be provided by an internet connection, in an email message, or an in-store kiosk.

A host of examples are listed in the 83-page filing. Examples include:

Bellying up to a the bar in a pub and checking out the event calendar for that establishment
Walking down a supermarket aisle and reading recipes related to items on the shelves, complete with instructional videos
Scanning the packaging of a movie DVD and being shown that movie’s trailer, snippets of its soundtrack, and online reviews
Sitting in a coffee shop and purchasing the tunes that’s being played over the shop’s sound system
Dining in a restaurant and receiving nutritional information about your meal
Receiving the answers to problem sets in textbooks or reviews of novels in, uh, novels
Scanning software packaging and watching a video tutorial
Scanning magazine inserts and blow-in cards that provide info or discounts on the products advertised

Source: The Register

Editors Note:
Most of these examples seem to be obvious applications for RFID and mobile devices in general, so I am not too sure what Apple is actually protecting with this patent application. Most of these ideas have been known and talked about for years and even a decade or more.

Virtual Shopping

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:55:10 +0000

Imagine shopping using a virtual shopping mall on the Web via your computer, smartphone, or TV, where the products you order are really coming from a dull looking warehouse that lacks all the gloss and decorum of the virtual shopping mall.

It could look something like this:

Taking this further into the future, my guess is that when this type of service is mainstream, the next generation’s spin on it will be to make it easier to shop by skipping some of the tech that makes it look real. The reason being that many will not be familiar with real stores and thus will not care for the way they look. Instead, they will invent innovative and novel ways to buy things that are not necessarily related to real world shopping. In the meantime, this real interface is important because that is what this generation is use to.

Perhaps incorporating shopping into games might also work. If generation Web are use to gaming, then they could shop while inside a game or virtual world using a virtual avatar.