GameStop Leverages Mobile For In-Store Experiences
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
GameStop using video to help combat online rivals in its bricks-and-mortar stores
At the National Retail Federation’s 104th Annual Convention & Expo, GameStop announced that it was going to bolster “the in-store engagement of its customers in interactive, informative, and entertaining ways,” according to a press release.
The retailer will be one of the first to adopt Azure, an innovative Microsoft cloud platform, to enable streaming of video game and other promotional content directly to customer or store associate mobile devices. This will allow customers to actually view content from GameStop’s catalog in a digitally immersive shopping experience.
TechTimes reports GameStop is using in-store beacons to push video and promotions via Azure directly to customers’ mobile devices as they shop inside GameStop’s brick-and-mortar stores. The beacons first send a welcome message with in-store promotions, as well as game trailers and other product data.
The move, according to the CIO Journal, is in part an effort to fight back against online shopping by creating an accessible in-store alternative. “We need to use the brick-and-mortar stores to show off video game content in the best possible way,” Jeff Donaldson, senior vice president of the GameStop Technology Institute, told the CIO Journal. The Technology Institute was created last year to build applications that help the retailer adapt to the growth of online and mobile shopping.
With the new platform, store associates will also be able to access individual information for customers who have opted in to the info-sharing feature of the GTI app, allowing associates to customize suggestions based on a customer’s unique shopping history.
GameStop is hoping that the new capabilities will help reduce the “showrooming” effect, in which shoppers browse and handle merchandise in physical stores and purchase them online at lower prices. The CIO Journal states that GameStop’s more tech-savvy customers will find the new in-store technology engaging, encouraging them to actually purchase in-store rather than online.
“Microsoft has always been a fantastic and innovative company for GameStop to collaborate with, both in the technology space as well as with their video game consoles and titles,” said Jeff Donaldson, senior vice president of GameStop Technology Institute. “We are continuing to work closely with them to discover and aggressively elevate ways to enhance the retail experience for our customers today and in the future.”
The cloud platform will also be used to stream video game trailers to a 4K ultra HD TV, and offer an in-store mobile shopping cart to facilitate faster checkout for customers.
“Our collaboration with GameStop shows the types of things that are possible when Azure is used to enhance consumer engagement,” said Tracy Issel, general manager of Worldwide Retail, Consumer Goods, Hospitality and Travel at Microsoft Corp. “GameStop is utilizing our cloud computing technology in their brick-and-mortar stores in new exciting ways, and demonstrating the type of retail technology applications we can build on Azure moving forward."
A global, multichannel video game, consumer electronics and wireless services retailer, GameStop operates more than 6,600 stores across 14 countries.