Interestingly, they have started with plants. Mobile apps held to a bar code provide ratings, instructions on care, how-to advice and other information that is intended to make the shopper feel more confident about their purchase and therefore, more likely to buy. This marriage of technology, consumer psychology and retail strategy could be the wave of the future as merchants stop fearing that technology will steal sales from them. They will start employing it to enhance the sales experience. If introduced effectively, this could lead to improving sales and margins. Elizabeth Olsen reports in the New York Times:
"WHETHER it’s a piece of pipe or new kitchen cabinets, many Americans search for the right product in the aisles of home improvement stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s, trying to quickly identify what they need.
The big-box stores are introducing some help to provide customers with immediate information for their buying decisions. They are adding bar codes to certain products that give potential buyers on-the-spot access to product reviews and ratings, how-to guides and videos.
This will gradually expand across a greater range of products in the thousands of stores across the country as the huge home improvement retailers, which have been hit by the poor economy, seek to prompt consumers to undertake repairs or renovations they have been delaying.
For now, garden plants sold at Home Depot and Lowe’s have bar codes on each plant tag that enable customers with smartphone scanners to check out whether the plant, for example, grows in low light or needs frequent watering.
The big-box stores are introducing some help to provide customers with immediate information for their buying decisions. They are adding bar codes to certain products that give potential buyers on-the-spot access to product reviews and ratings, how-to guides and videos.
This will gradually expand across a greater range of products in the thousands of stores across the country as the huge home improvement retailers, which have been hit by the poor economy, seek to prompt consumers to undertake repairs or renovations they have been delaying.
For now, garden plants sold at Home Depot and Lowe’s have bar codes on each plant tag that enable customers with smartphone scanners to check out whether the plant, for example, grows in low light or needs frequent watering.
This is the season when stores sell millions of garden plants, which are an important segment of the business. At Lowe’s, for example, nursery sales, which also include trees and flowers, were 4 percent of the chain’s total $48.8 billion sales in the fiscal year ended Jan. 28.
Chris Gerhard, a home gardener and real estate broker in San Antonio, says mobile bar codes have greatly improved her gardening outcomes.
“Those little plastic tags on plants always had minimal information,” she said of her purchases at her local Home Depot. “Now, with the bar codes, you can scan them and figure out immediately what is going to grow in the sun, when to plant and how far apart to place plants.
“That’s great for me because in this climate you can fry things to a crisp, and I have. This helped me know exactly what would work on my front porch and back patio without wasting a lot of time and money.”
Home Depot also has placed codes on its outdoor patio sets and is running a 30-second bar code commercial nationwide on cable and network television. It is also experimenting with newspaper circulars carrying bar codes that instantly link to a video about its new line, Martha Stewart Living Kitchens.
In the video, Ms. Stewart discusses the various styles of kitchen cabinets, counters and other items that are available, and invites customers to make an in-store appointment with a Home Depot kitchen designer.
Tom Sweeney, director of online strategy for homedepot.com, said the bar code pilots are about extending the company’s “anytime, anywhere” marketing strategy.
“We are testing this out on specific product categories,” he said, of mobile bar codes, “but it’s too early to understand how, and whether, customers will use this technology.”
“Large-ticket items, for example, require research, so there may not be an immediate purchase even with the information at the customer’s fingertips,” he said.
Roger Marquis, a marketing expert who blogs about bar codes, questioned whether Home Depot or Lowe’s were giving their customers a useful experience that would prompt them to routinely scan codes and induce them to buy.
“A lot of marketers look at bar-code technology as a silver bullet to engage customers,” he said. “There’s a disconnect. They are not giving enough information about what bar codes are, and not integrating the technology into their marketing strategies. If the user doesn’t have a worthwhile experience, then they aren’t going to scan codes, and the technology will die on the vine.”
Lowe’s has taken steps, like building a mobile version of its Web site, to make information more accessible to customers, said Gihad Jawhar, vice president of lowes.com.
The company introduced the readable tags last November for its poinsettias and fresh-cut trees, directing customers to its plant guide with instructions on care, including how much water, fertilizer and light to supply.
This spring, the trees in containers sold at Lowe’s garden centers began carrying tags that could be scanned to view a two-minute how-to video on the specifics of tree planting, including what soil to buy. One of the main reasons for container tree returns is unsuccessful planting, said a Lowe’s spokeswoman, Colleen Carbott.
Lowe’s is using Microsoft tag technology — colorful squares — which looks different from the black-and-white checked quick-response codes at Home Depot.
“We also have a star rating system on our product pages with user-generated content that is to be accessed by customers,” Mr. Jawhar noted. Lowe’s will not place the bar codes on items like a bag of cement, he said, but plans to place them on products that lend themselves to how-to information.
Mike Wehrs, chief executive of Scanbuy, the mobile bar code platform that works with Home Depot, said more than 25 million people in the United States already had the ability to scan with their mobile phones. He expects the number to increase as more people acquire smartphones.
“Mobile bar-code scanning experienced a 1,600 percent increase in traffic last year,” he said. Besides quick customer access, he said retailers can also choose to receive data on customer scans, including which products are scanned most and their geographical location.
Customers like Keri Stevens, of Verona, Ky., already are convinced. While shopping with her three sons recently in Home Depot, one noticed a bar code on a potted cactus. An admitted “black thumb” gardener, Ms. Stevens bought it only after scanning the bar code to find out the care details.
“Now we look for bar codes together,” said Ms. Stevens. “We make it a treasure hunt, and my kids see scanning bar codes as the new normal.”
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