Two presentations today:

Retail and Technology trends in Service

• Adam Eisholz, Brittany Austin, Laura ten Pas and Elisa Polglaze, Librarians- Fashion Institute of Design)

Consumer is changing.  Customers taking their devices with them, comparing prices (showrooming).   Harvard Business Review described the consumer decision journey  like a funnel–from many brands to fewer to final choice.  Now the consumer journey looks like a galaxy, with a consideration and evaluation stage–where they may find out about new brands, get word of mouth, read online reviews, researcy customer loyalty information, and recommendations from happy shoppers who even advocate for the product, so they may “bond” with a product before they are buying.

This idea of web-influenced sales–they see something on the web, but go to the store and purchase it– commerce 3.0–crossing channels between web and physical stores.   And stores can capitalize on this–for example, the Shopkick app allows you to browse the lookbook, check in to the store, and you can earn points–meanwhile the store is tracking your shopping, looking at store design effectiveness, etc.

Milo–local shopping–puts brick and mortar stores online.   Yelp also a big part of the consumer decision journey.

New Store Formats

Downsizing stores in urban spaces–like Target in San Francisco.  Another trend is hybrid stores–like Cabelas–part museum, part store.  Stocklist stores–like Apple doesn’t have all the stock out, just the items to play with.  Pop-up shops where you sell merchandise for a particular purpose–like Disney rolling out a movie.  Topshelfstyle.com is a fashion truck–like a food truck–selling fashion.   San Francisco did a “pop-up” library in an underserved area of the community.  (Pinger.org–look up).

Retailers also focusing on experiential shopping.  Add value to the act of shopping.  Uniclo? Store in San Francisco has photo booth so you can try on clothes and pose in the photo booth to see how they look. (They opened a “pop-up” shop ahead of time to get interest–idea for libraries) Lomography store in SF has a museum, classes, etc.  Burberry London flagship store is called a “walk in website.”  The customers don’t check out.  They receive an iPad and check out like they are using a catalog.    Clothes have RFID tags–you can walk up to mirrors and see the background of that clothing via the RFID tag.

Other stories experimenting with augmented reality–like Lego, for example.  TopShop in the U.K. teamed up with Microsoft Kinect–virtual fitting room.  Creates a sense of fun and experience.

Trends emerging from retail:

Mobile and Tablet apps:

Google wallet–why can’t we store our library card on an app like that?  Boopsie allows user to search library catalog, download ebooks, self-checkout, etc.  and it’s multilingual.

Waving your phone at products on shelf and it gives you more information about it.

Neiman Marcus app (opt in service, unlike shopkick app)–It alerts staff when you walk in, check your shopping history, the shopper can communicate virtually with the staff.  Personalizes the transaction whne you know something about them.  (Wow, implication for apps for a library–Foursquare type of app or way to “check in” and share who you are when you enter a library).

Personalization and Interaction

Online recommendations–Asos has teamed up with Fredhopper which changes the design of the website based on the customer so it can market to the right person.  SF startup, Inspirare–instead of them creating a product assortment; the designers upload their creations and then the members of Inspirare choose what is made.  (How about doing book orders like that?  Upload lists and gather input?)

BookPsychic–can rate books

Experiential Libraries

A mobile Type-truck.com–a moveable typography truck in SF.  Museum apps that use augmented reality — imagine using an app to scan the library with popup augmented information.  Maker Spaces in libraries.

In Store technology–not only mobile devices, but fixed devices too.  Bring the online experience into the physical.  Simplify the experience–people want to have meaningful experience and receive excellent customer service.

Neiman’s has a touch screen device that will tell you about products; Macy’s has a similar Beauty Spot kiosk.  Macy’s also adding “endless aisle” — device shows things that aren’t even in the store that can be purchased.

Warby Parker (eye glass company)sells everything online so they opened aPop up shop–allows you to try on the glasses first.

Holograms–projections of virtual people

Library technology–

Univ of Iowa–DIY history project.  Letting the public scan, upload and tag their documents since library staff couldn’t possibly do all of it.
Tablets /iPads as lookup stations
iPad dispensing machine for library
Shelvar–does a shelf read and marks books that are misshelved? (Is that an app?)

Tomorrow’s Digital Library Today

• Paul Pival, John Brosz Univ of Calgary- Visualization Research Coordinator (love that job title!)

University of Calgary completely redone–with touch tables (stand-up and coffee tables), touch kiosks with Media walls (made of lcd panels), digital signage (running Omnivex Moxie), Visualization wall, Christie MicroTiles for instant displays, Magic Planet spherical display (digital globe, basically)–1 for display, 1 for students to do things with.  Library also has a number of computers w/dual displays for student workflow.

Raised flooring which allows for flexibility with electrical underneath;  all mobile furniture

Collaborative spaces for student groups.  Software in collaborative workrooms is TeamSpot by Tidebreak.  It enables students to each work on their own device but all control or work on the same document on a separate screen together.

The library added “Peer Roamers” (students) to roam the library, offer help to other students, wear identifiable tshirt, have business card, etc.

Problems with touch tables–don’t work well with sunlight, no “killer app” with Smart Touch tables.

Gaming R & D Lab

game development tools, 3D modeling software
have gaming consoles available of all types back to Pong and Atari

Retro games can be checked out or used in library space

How they are being used?

game development, play, gender studies class experiments w/games

They built a visual display wall and a giant touch table to contro l it with 15 short-throw rear projectors, 34.5 million pixels). Used by professors across campus like astronomy to display data in a more detailed view than a computer could handle.  English professors used it to examine scans of ancient texts.  Computer Science for presentations.  Dual displays allow compare/contrasat. Can be a multi-display environment. Used library as a joint space for all departments.   Use Windows to allow for simplicity of use.    Interesting concept in terms of accessing visual data.