Amazon’s new virtual reality iPhone app not only opens up your store to more showrooming, it makes the world its showroom.
Showrooming is when customers come into your shop to try out a product they proceed to buy online at a lower price.
Amazon’s new “Flow” app lets you buy products just by aiming your camera at them, be they in a store or on a shelf in your cupboard. You don’t need a bar code or QR code, it analyzes the packaging or labeling and then matches it to products sold on Amazon.
You don’t need to take a picture, you just aim your camera at it and then the app shows little blue dots around the item to let you know it is analyzing it. It is virtual reality shopping.
The app can apparently use the packaging’s color, labeling and overall appearance to match it to its own stock.
It’s part of the Amazon app for iOS devices as an update.
But it doesn’t work on all items, and appears to have a ways to go before its rock solid reliable.
We tried it on an old box for a JL Audio XR speaker and it didn’t register. We tried it aimed at the computer screen on a shot of a boxed up Sony XAV-602BT as well as other car audio products and it didn’t register.
According to Yahoo!Tech, the app works very well with books but less so on other items.
Read the full Yahoo!Tech review here.
Thanks D.!
Out of three responses from retailers to the “threat” posed by the Amazon Flow app, ONE seeks to take action.
TWO other responses depend on others to take action. In ONE case the retailer blames the consumer for not placing enough value on the retailer services.
While this is not a scientific survey of the methods with which retailers face challenges, it seems a reasonably accurate reflection of the anecdotal reality: 33.33% action. 66.66% lament and hope.
There are lotsa books written on this problem. I am not certain my observation or suggested solution will have much impact in these few paragraphs, BUT…
Retailers gotta be in charge of their own fate. NO ONE ELSE HAS YOUR BEST INTEREST AT HEART.
Retailers gotta create demand for the products and services they chose to sell.
Retailers gotta fill that demand profitably.
Complaining, waiting and hoping, make for entertaining reading but are not a very effective business plan. FOR SURE blaming the consumer for his failure to find value in what a retailer provides will get us no where.
WE GOTTA GET BETTER at this business OR SOMEBODY ELSE WILL. Be in charge.
Ray Windsor
German Maestro
More active displays can go a long way… I’ve changed the way I merchandise my store. What was once a big stack of product (With packaging and model numbers showing) is now on display. Even if it’s not part of an active display (One that is powered up… With sound.) We take it out of its packaging and put it on display. Cool looking shelves with some LED backlighting is an inexpensive solution… But looks high-end. (Think of some of the nicer CES booths) At CES we are not usually shown packaging. We are shown highlighted products on or in some sort of display. We are shown solutions. Not just stacks of packaged products. Many retailers have that Wal-Mart look. Lots of products stacked high… Just hoping a customer is going to grab one and check out. That kind of mentality and merchandising only works if your the cheapest price. I’ve seen my average ticket sale over double in the past 2 years! It hasn’t cost me a fortune… But it has been a lot of creative thinking and a lot of work. But, I promise active displays and showcased products help you sell more… And help stop some of the show-rooming. They only time a customer needs to see the package is when it’s in the backseat or in the trunk of the car. Because you just finished installing it! Get rid of your packaging on the showroom… Get back to being profitable. Get back to being excited about your business and what you offer. It works! – Joey
Amazon won’t be happy until they put all the brick-and-mortar stores out of business. But some of the “blame” has to rest on consumers. They want to be able to come into my store to see, feel and learn about a product, but they refuse to place any value on that service I provide. I’ll spend an hour with them going over the pros and cons of all their options, demonstrating the products with the displays and helping them to find the right product for their needs. Then they’ll complain because my price is $20 more than on-line. They don’t seem to *get* that they are in my store in the first place because they can’t get the kind of service I provide on line. Consumers need to start valuing the service a brick-and-mortar store provides because when we’re all gone, we won’t be coming back. And they’ll be stuck in an endless loop of ordering, sending back, re-ordering until they get what they are looking for or give up and settle for the last thing that came in. And consumers really need to get over the idea that small business owners are rich because we’re not. We’re the last people to get paid – after the landlord, the employees, the utilities, the vendors. If there’s anything left over, then we get a paycheck. And every time they ask for a discount or ask us to match on-line pricing, they don’t seem to understand that they are taking money out of my pocket. Because everybody else still needs to get paid first. But I like Anthony’s solution of white box packaging.
No surprise technology. I tried it with German Maestro headphone gift box currently available on Amazon.com. It did not work. BUT it did work on a Precision Power subwoofer gift box A.12
There is no doubt that consumers are becoming. more comfortable with this kind of technology and consumers are certainly comfortable buying on the Internet, especially Amazon.
Brick & mortar simply has to be paying attention. Not so much maybe that the consumer will not buy from a specialty retailer IF he happens to be in the store BUT the consumer learns about the product including the lowest price VERY QUICKLY.
This puts more pressure on the specialty retailer to be much better informed.
Ray Windsor
German Maestro
Solution our manufactures should start using white box packaging on all units. The advantage is multiplies for everyone. White boxes are less cost, and it will be one more obstacle for for this online retailer has to jump through.