Clark Kent And The Connected Shopper

By Gary Schwartz, Impact Mobile

At some point in your youth, you surely had imagined a day you would wake with some obscure power that made you invincible, unassailable, and of course omniscient; that you entered a mirror world where Clark Kent, Nick Parker, Bruce Wayne or Wonder Woman’s Diana Prince use their stealth, wit and brawn to balance the elements of good and evil.

Our affinity with superheroes goes beyond fans donning capes and goggles at a local Comic-Con. There is a deep-seated need to command an increasingly fast-paced world. To get deals to outmaneuver the mall.

For the last century, we have used smart technology and technopathic-like skills to make our homes, stores and malls the envy of Gotham, Metropolis and Xudar, the home world of the Green Lantern.

By 2022, an average U.S. household with two teenage children will own 50-odd connected devices. Our stores are decked with beacons and our malls use WiFi to monitor the consumer footprint. There is a seamless omnichannel journey for the super-shopper enabled by voice, touch and location.

For the next generation of fantastic, connected devices to work and make their owners that much more “magnificent” they need to go beyond function. These devices need to perform seamlessly and intelligently. They cannot interrupt our actions with clumsy menus and incompatible standards. They need to be invisible, or at minimum an intuitive prosthetic.

Are digital assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Amy Ingram or an “OK Google” our new cast of shopping superheroes? Will our super powers allow us to fumble in the air using versions of augmented reality, selecting products on the shelf in ways that only we can see?

Using a new digital assistant or AR may help us better manage our connected universe of solutions in the coming years, but what will make them truly successful will be allowing their owner to feel a little more heroic, a little more autonomous.

The shopper independence powered by data and devices forces the retailer to learn new engagement skills. It forces them to redesign the store, enter the home and be part of the commerce journey.

Connecting Everything

In the new commerce battle the path to purchase is fraught with dangers. Intent to buy can be intercepted by ease of purchase. Consumers abandon intent if too many miles or clicks are in the way.

The Omnishopper wants more information and connected devices and always-on data that facilitates seamless movement between channels.

The device and media all are dependent on where the shopper is in their customer journey and within a retail sector.

Mastercard’s Omnishopper 2017 report indicates that shoppers looking for consumer electronics are the most likely to research their purchase, particularly using technology. They are 36% more likely to use the Internet on a computer or laptop (38% use it most of the time). 22% use the web browser on their phone out of store most of the time.

While grocery shoppers are the least likely to research; they are 29% less likely to use the Internet on a computer or laptop (20% use it most of the time).

Grocery shoppers are more likely to use more traditional media, with 25% more likely than other sectors to use store catalogs and mailings and 17% more likely to use magazines or newspapers.

The shopper journey is highly complex — no longer are there shopper insights. Now we can depend on rich data as micro-moments along the journey.

New-age companies are trying to connect (and own) as many pieces of the journey as possible. There is a strange expansion of Lego-snapping services in the market. Amazon.com selling buttons and digital assistants are only one example.

We need a super hero moment.

Is this happening? Amazon Dash Buttons work with your billing credentials to allow for a one-click purchase at point-of-need, to order a product to the door in hours. Google Home works with your profile data and home peripherals and music and transport apps to create a smarter concierge service. Snap Inc’s Spectacles work to seamlessly tie your Snap chat world together. Sense taps into your home electrical board to monitor, fault detect and communicate on all your appliances like a SIRI listening to the voice of the electricity.

The list goes on. However, each is in its own indefatigable fiefdom…no one is doing a tech mashup anytime soon. The word O-P-E-N in open standards is a four-letter word.

OK Google

Returning to Mr. Clark Kent and the connected shopper, like programming the VCR or connecting a Nest Thermostat, these mobile tools can be challenging.

Is it a world of bionic Six Million Dollar men? The future is certainly a world where we are connected ambiently without the clicks and clutter of competing smart things.  X-Men mutants were called “Homo Superior” — perhaps that is what we need to aspire to as Homo Sapiens folk?

The final superhero lesson to heed comes from the Dark Knight. A character that never had a true superpower, Batman appeared in Detective Comics #27 and become famed more as a Sherlock than an alien from another planet. Unlike Superman, Bruce Wayne had one very human power: he was smart. (He also had the other human powers of wealth, Bruce Lee-like agility and a cleft chin.)

The gadgets and gizmos that appear on the shelf each year, from the 1980s Walkman to the 1990s iPhone, promised instant access to entertainment, information and friends. As the pantheon of super tools expanded into the 2010s many ended up lost in a box in the basement or as a permanent paperweight on the office desk.

In many cases these connected things are not overly smart and do not help us shop more efficiently. With the proliferation of connected devices and a wide array of competing standards we are still far from the ideal uber-shopper, the super-powered consumer.

Using a new digital assistant or AR may help us better manage our connected universe of solutions in the coming years, but what will make them truly successful will be allowing their owner to feel a little more heroic.

Over the past 15 years, Gary Schwartz has played a leadership role in the North American mobile industry, founding, investing and managing a number of companies in the adtech, healthtech, marketing, social media, automotive and fintech verticals. He is an author specializing in business strategies for retail commerce and a six-time recipient of the Deloitte Fast 50 award. Schwartz has published “THE IMPULSE ECONOMY” and “FAST SHOPPER, SLOW STORE” with Simon & Schuster, Atria Imprint in New York City. He is presently writing a book on the Internet of Things called “IF THINGS COULD SPEAK”. Schwartz is Chair Emeritus of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. He is currently global director of the Location Based Marketing Association.