Matthew Goodyear, COO and CIO On a weekend evening, the scene at a prominent supermarket chain’s outlet based in the northeast is a promising gold mine. Being one of the major retail stores, the outlet is flocked by thousands of shoppers who are empowered with information from online sources and are looking at validating their choices. While the shoppers appreciate the wider selection and the abundance of information available online, they still relish the in-store experience, as they need to touch, see, and try on the product in ways that can’t be done online. Unfortunately, that’s where most brick-and-mortar stores lack, as they are still unable to engage their consumers through a creative shopping experience. With e-commerce raising the bar of customer engagement, consumers expect the same personalized experience when they visit brick-and-mortar stores. While kiosks provide store visitors with a basic digital interface for them to interact with the store, their effectiveness hinges on the periodic renewal and freshness of the content, something that ShoptoCook operationalizes seamlessly. By taking a fresh approach to the content and digital media challenges, ShoptoCook provides kiosk solutions that enable retailers to offer an engaging in-store experience. The content offered to the customer is customized and consolidated by the company to make the digital media interactive and customer-driven.
Founded in 2001, ShoptoCook provides grocery stores with an interactive media platform to engage shoppers across a variety of devices. From in-store kiosks in the aisle that can print or display coupons, recipes, and product information, to web, mobile, e-mail and online ordering solutions, ShoptoCook’s aim is simple: deliver solutions that engage shoppers.
Establishing Kiosks as an Additive means for Marketing Strategies
ShoptoCook organizes and consolidates content to provide interactive and customer-driven digital media. In addition to kiosk solutions and related content, ShoptoCook provides a digital omnichannel approach to retailer customer engagement that includes the management of websites, e-mail, and SMS programs in addition to smartphone apps. “Kiosks are not a replacement for mobile and online marketing, but are an additive means to enhance the impact of these marketing strategies,” says John F. Thompson, president and CEO at ShoptoCook.
Kiosks can include loyalty card scanners to reward repeat buyers and capture demographic information and also can enable a wide range of options that support specific grocery business objectives.
Kiosks are not a replacement for mobile and online marketing, but are an additive means to enhance the impact of these marketing strategies
When kiosk solutions contain intuitive, easy to use screens and instructions, the need for shoppers to contact a store associate to complete transactions or get information becomes a thing of the past. Because kiosks operate automatically, grocery stores can free up human resources for other tasks—thus increasing operational efficiency while reducing costs. ShoptoCook’s kiosk allows clients to engage the shoppers at the point of decision with impactful advertising, interactive promotions and coupons. It drives traffic to center store as shoppers pick up savings from dozens of continuously updated coupons and help drive shoppers to the perimeter in search of meal ideas built around fresh.
From Clicks to Bricks
Although retailers have developed several online, web, and mobile programs to enhance the reach to their customers, the results produced by them have been limited, owing to the lack of complete integration of the program for seamless engagement. ShoptoCook’s ability to integrate all the digital and online programs into one platform enables customers to get a continuous and unified experience as they visit different stores of the same retail chain. The relevance of the content available to a user on the kiosk is influenced by previously visited stores and items purchased. ShoptoCook takes into consideration the number of stores, demographics of consumers in the store, and the number of kiosks that can be installed based on space availability.
Given its ability to provide multiple products and solutions—kiosk, mobile, and web—under a single platform, ShoptoCook is a cost-efficient and one-stop-shop option for clients. The ShoptoCook media center drives traffic to the center-store as shoppers pick up savings from dozens of continuously updated coupons. On the web side of things, ShoptoCook builds and maintains grocery websites for independent retailers, ad groups, agencies, and retail chains, and supports over 1,000 stores across 30+ states, with millions of views each month. “Shoppers can browse the weekly ad circular, build a shopping list, plan meals, clip coupons, place an online order, sign up for e-newsletters, and stay updated on local promotions and community events,” explains Thompson. For mobile retail engagement, ShoptoCook designs sites in responsive web design (RWD), which offers easy viewing and navigation with a minimum of resizing across a wide range of devices—from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors. Matthew Goodyear, the COO and CIO at ShoptoCook adds, “With this technique, the distinction between a desktop website and a mobile interface becomes less significant, and that’s where RWD lowers cost and increases response time with respect to design and technology changes.”
Customer-Driven Interactive Digital Media
By simplifying the process of gathering and executing content on the kiosk, ShoptoCook ensures that the content is continuously refreshed and stays relevant. “Many elements of digital media are still a relatively new concept for retailers, especially on the grocery side of the business. The aspect of continuous gathering and development of content has become the go-to strategy,” says Thompson. ShoptoCook has built an internal infrastructure that makes the process of accumulating the data easier. The company aggregates data sources, including integration with the retailer’s loyalty program, to create and deliver relevant content. “Many shoppers are unaware of, or do not have access to, the many benefits of a retailer’s loyalty program. By providing an in-store loyalty portal, retailers can more effectively reach an untapped segment of shoppers,” adds Goodyear.
"The ShoptoCook Kiosk engages customers looking for value and rewards, which increases loyalty and sales"
ShoptoCook’s content is entirely managed, and the customers can choose the information that they need, which translates into a seamless retailer-shopper relationship. From a retailer’s point-of-view, ShoptoCook takes on the CapEx of installing and maintaining the kiosks. “Generally, retailers must invest a tremendous amount of CapEx to operationalize a kiosk network. Our model eliminates the CapEx, and retailers instead have a simple weekly content management fee,” explains Thompson. The company’s solutions have been advantageous to consumer-packaged goods (CPG) and retail companies, providing them in-store marketing and national advertisement programs. CPG companies have achieved great access to independent retailers at the store level, thanks to ShoptoCook’s fast-growing and versatile network of retailers and CPG companies. In a specific instance, a CPG company leveraged ShoptoCook’s platform to attain a 14 percent increase in sales and a 27 percent increase in repeat customers. In another example, the company ran a targeted marketing campaign for another client who was underperforming in the packaged meat section. Taking the content from the meat supplier, ShoptoCook was able to advertise high-value coupons across the client’s social media network, yielding a 21 percent net increase in sales in a five-month period.
A Shop with a Futuristic View
Over the years, although retailers have developed several online, web, and mobile programs to enhance their reach to their customers, the results produced by them have been limited, owing to the lack of complete integration and seamless engagement. ShoptoCook’s ability to integrate all digital and online programs into one platform enables consumers to get a continuous and unified experience throughout the shopping experience. Thompson plans to enter the tier 2 grocery and retail industry in the coming months.
On the CPG front, ShoptoCook can be seen driving digital marketing while enhancing the relevance of the content by integrating different types of data. With a critical focus on aggregating data points from online searches and print media into a single database, “we are looking at increasing the effectiveness of the engagement programs, thereby strengthening the loyalty and relationship with the consumer,” concludes Goodyear.
