New Wearable Chip A Game-Changer For Retail
By Ally Orlando, contributing writer
Your retail customers likely already know how to attract new customers in-store and online, but what about on the streets? New wearable technology developed by Israeli startup Awear Solutions could turn on-the-go consumers into brand evangelists with its innovative approach to mobile commerce, a New York Observer article reports.
The software functions through a digital chip embedded in garments. Users with the Awear app installed on their mobile device can scan garments within 30 feet. Rather than asking a stranger on the street where they bought their bag or jacket, fashion-conscious consumers can simply scan the garment to find out — and then purchase it directly through the app.
With distinct item identification and mobile commerce capabilities, the Awear app could bridge the gap between assistive retail technologies, such as crowdsourced shopping sites like The Hunt or image recognition apps, and consumers’ purchasing decisions.
Luxury retailer DKNY tested the technology last month in its Easter Fashion Hunt. Participants downloaded an app and selected an Easter egg from the app screen, and each egg was associated with a garment and embedded chip located in the store. They then used the technology to find out whether they were getting “hotter” or “colder” to the item.
DKNY spokesperson Aliza Licht told the Observer that the retailer connected to Awear through Yuli Ziv, founder and CEO of the Style Coalition, a provider of influencer marketing solutions.
“[Awear] can be a game-changer,” says Ziv, an author of two books on social media and technology in fashion. “If it’s adopted by a large number of brands, this can be a whole new platform. It can be a platform that has its own API and other people developing apps on top of it. That’s what a lot of social [retail] apps we see are missing right now.”
The Observer article points out that the technology also invites two exciting possibilities for your retail customers: identifying counterfeit garments and rewarding consumers who assist in winning new business by eliciting a significant amount of scans.
Fortunately for retail technology providers, the chips could be a cost-effective investment, costing less than one dollar per garment. “If you put it on 2,000 items in your new collection, you’re making 2,000 customers into advertisers,” Awear Solutions’ founder Liron Slonimsky says.