Creating Retail Experiences 2: Specialty Retailer

Background

This European specialty retailer offers entertainment and electronic products to more than 750,000 visitors to its stores every day. It is natural then for the retailer to be on the lookout for ways to use the latest technology to engage and communicate with customers.
The retailer wanted to develop an in-store kiosk that would run on the Windows 8 operating system and be ready to launch in just two and a half months. Capgemini was able to leverage its partnership with Intel and Microsoft to bring to bear the knowledge and resources required to meet this deadline.

Solution

Initially, the kiosks were piloted in two stores, using PCs powered by Intel® Core™ i5 processors, which are optimized for the Windows 8 operating system, delivering strong performance, security and manageability. This also supported the retailer’s move towards multi-channel retailing. The final application featured more than 25 screen views and the consumer version of the app, which was publically launched on the Windows Store, was downloaded more than 50,000 times and held the top spot for retail apps in France for its first three months after launch.

Results

Once in place, the solution gave store visitors an engaging and easy-to-use way to browse a much larger stock range than that displayed on the shelves, as well as viewing more detailed information about each item, in-store availability, and prices. Customers can also order from the application and pick up their choices at the cashier desk. Finally, tablets powered by Intel® Atom™ processors were issued to store assistants so that they can bring the application to customers anywhere in the store.

Capgemini’s Retail Innovation Center was critical to developing and delivering this pioneering solution in such a tight timeframe and in a full state of readiness. Intel is a primary collaborator at the innovation center, where marketing and technology experts from both companies work together to create industry-aligned, best-of-breed concepts for retailers. Everything created there is scalable and ready for industrialization, as this client happily discovered.