Who will be the first to Microsoft Surface in the UK?

The Microsoft Surface looks like a giant touch screen set into a table. It allows users to interact with digital content through natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects. The press releases show people drawing with their fingers, sorting photos by dragging them and moving maps around and then bringing up information about various places. None of these applications are anything new but the use of gestures (similar to the iPhone) and the way a group of people can sit around it and use it together makes it great entertainment. It would certainly add a wow factor to any store and would be a draw to a wide cross section on the population. It might provide that retail theatre that is so often talked about. For more information go to http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

For a retailer though, having got the customers into the store, the aim is to sell some goods as well as provide some entertainment. So what applications could be run on it?

• It could be a fun guided selling tool. It can recognise a product put down on it and provide detailed information about the product, in a format that can be enjoyed by a group.
• What about selling processes that currently involve everyone huddling around a pc? – kitchen design, furniture ordering. How much more fun and friendly this would be when sat around a Surface.

AT&T in the US are the first retailer to deploy the Surface. Is this an expensive red herring which really does not offer huge benefit over more traditional and, presumably, less expensive hardware? Or is the wow factor sufficient to justify the investment? Who will be the first in the UK?

Customer Centric Point of Service

The recent Aberdeen Group report of the same name makes interesting reading. 175 retail companies from across the globe were surveyed. The fact that only 22% of the respondents were from Europe does mean that the results need to be treated with caution by UK retailers. This geographical distibution may explain some results which look slightly odd but more of that later.

Top interesting facts:

* Retailers are sweating their assets!
- 60% of retailers have EPOS systems which are over 5 years old
- 35% of those have EPOS systems which are over 10 years old

* Processing promotions including coupon based promotions is still sufficiently challenging to warrant inclusion

Items that may not ring true in the UK:

* Aberdeen split retailers into Best in Class (top 20%), Average (next 50%) and laggards (bottom 30%). The average improvement in basket size for the last year for best in class was quoted as 19.5% – extremely impressive for any retailer! I wonder how many British retailers achieved that.

* Across all three divisions the penetration of gift cards was greater than universal (does that mean integrated?) PIN entry devices. Is the UK behind on gift cards and ahead on Chip & Pin? Or maybe my gut instinct is wrong…

Recommendations for moving POS forward:

* Monitor customer satisfaction at the POS using a random sample. Also monitor basket size and speed of transactions. Set goals for all these measures.

*Integrate your POS into other channels. Consider using SOA (Service Orientated Architecture) for this.

* Use information from the POS to plan promotions. Share the knowledge across departments (IT, marketing, store operations, buying)

* Other POS functionality to consider – contactless payment, loyalty schemes, CRM, mobile POS, guided selling prompts and PCI compliance (customer service does not stop at the front office, providing security for customers’ data is part of the service!)

Q. How does Retail Answers usually deliver RAPID?

(RAPID is our web-based store management system)

A. Arrange remote access with the new client and do the installation onto their network remotely. This gives the technical team flexibillity and we would visit the client to do the workshops and training when the system is installed.

Q. How does Retail Answers deliver RAPID when the client sends a box to Retail Answers to install it on and remote access can’t be arranged. Oh and the client is based in central London and parking is difficult.

A. Put the hardware in a rack sack and take the train and tube! It’s greener than driving…