CompUSA and TigerDirect.ca, a Canada based electronics retailer, are trying a new way to connect the Internet experience and the store experience. What they are calling Retail 2.0 is a technology that ”provides online product information to in-store customers as they shop: product by product, aisle by aisle.”
Through a network of desktops, laptops, monitors and televisions throughout the store, shoppers can research information on products just as if they were at their home or office computer.
Comp USA has opened 32 stores featuring the Retail 2.0 shopping environment.
It may seem counter intuitive to provide shoppers with this much information in the store because you typically you want to be your shopper’s primary source of information and you don’t want them to compare and possibly see a better price elsewhere. However, shoppers are doing this anyway before they get to the store. Many come equipped with their Internet research in hand. So the idea is, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. What has been coined as social retailing is about something very different from traditional retail.
The presentation below designed by Mobminds is a primer on the social retailing trend and why it might be important to your store.
What in-store elements most influence a shopper to choose one brand or product over another? What is the best means of introducing a new product and motivating a shopper to add it to their basket? Our informal reader poll highlighted just a few instore marketing tools. Instore experience and signage came out the clear winners. However, the answer is that all of the instore communications tools have varying degrees of importance for creating impact with the shopper. 
