High street stores have been introduced to a way of using smartphones that is good for their businesses by a new retail platform.
Some of the more traditionally minded brick-and-mortar retailers have viewed the prevalence of mobile technology as a hindrance to their offline experiences. The developers behind ‘ShopKonnect’ are looking to change their viewpoint by allowing these same stores to target mobile device owners with highly personalised offers.
The platform claims to be able to reach customers in-store, near store and on the move, all in the hope of enhancing their loyalty and increasing sales.
Business and consumer
On the business side of ShopKonnect is a program offering support for a range of innovative store technologies. These include iBeacons, which can be synced with ShopKonnect apps to send push notifications out to passers-by.
All customers must have already downloaded ShopKonnect’s very own retail app, which is free to download. Other compatible systems include the mobile payment enabling NFC (near field communication) technology, as seen on the iPhone 6, and QR codes for redeeming offers.
Not only this, ShopKonnect can also harness all of the data it collects to provide store owners with valuable insights about their customers.
The future of retail?
Sen Sampanthar, founder and CEO of ShopKonnect, claims the service has been developed to help merchants cater for the demands of “tech-savvy customers”.
The product itself has received backing from Skywave founder Tan Koon Nguan, who has a number of years’ worth of experience in retail through his time at the footfall analytics firm.
Sampanthar added that systems such as ShopKonnect fall very much in line with where the retail market is heading.
“The nature of shopping is changing and the future is one where merchants and their customers interact through mobile devices extensively to manage a two-way shopping experience.
“Technology evolves quickly and consumer behaviour changes, which is why we also have a roadmap in place to accommodate the needs of shoppers and merchants going forward,” he commented.