Exciting opportunities: Welcome to the 10th exciting edition of ‘Vending Insight’, a regular feature from Planet Vending that focuses on today’s cashless, connected, IoT (Internet of Things) society. There’s no product news in Vending Insight and no stories about the providers of those products. On the contrary, it’s our intention to provide those vending operators, who are hungry for information on developing technologies, with some satisfying food for thought.
This week, Editor Ian Reynolds-Young takes the reins once more to discuss the phenomenon of ‘omni channel’ and as usual, we’ll provide our Ten Top Links that will take you to stories that have appeared across the Internet. They won’t all be about vending: in fact, we’ll steer you, through these stories, in the direction the world is heading. We hope that Vending Insight will inspire you to investigate how to apply the features of cashless payments, data collection and connectivity to the advantage of your vending business.
Omni Channel: What It Is, What It Can Do, And Why It Should Matter To Vending Professionals (Planet Vending)
A blog post dropped in to the PV in-box this week from Evoca HQ in Valbrembo and right there, in the opening paragraph, was a term that Ian Reynolds-Young hadn’t come across before. ‘Mobile devices, through which the concept of omni channel is developed, play a fundamental role in today’s shopping experience...’ Learn more, HERE
From The Internet
7 Examples of Brands with Excellent Omni-Channel Experiences (Hubspot.com)
First up, a brilliant, easily understood article that lists ‘7 companies with excellent omni channel experiences’ and it describes how these businesses – including Starbucks, Disney and Virgin Atlantic – have made the technology work for them. You can read it HERE
Retail industry is going beyond physical stores, omni-channel model to woo consumers (India Today)
Next, an article published this week by Indian publication Business Today that gets straight to the point. It begins: ‘The retail business globally is moving towards platform play. The rationale behind this is to own the consumer at every possible touch point.’ Amazon is cited as a case in point: ‘we want to be the most customer-obsessed company on the earth’, a spokesman is quoted as saying. The numbers referred to are eye-watering; it’s a very interesting read, and it’s HERE
Exciting Opportunities
Omni-Channel Retail Strategy: The What, Why, and How of “In-Store” Shopping (Shopify)
Californian outfit Shopify challenges retailers to embrace omni channel: ‘Omni-channel retail focuses on every customer interaction and their overall experience of your product and brand’, it states, before posing three interesting questions that really illustrate where omni channel is heading. HERE
LPWAN – What does low-power really mean for IoT devices?
One for the techies amongst us. In this article, Bruce Jackson puts a Thingstream IoT enabled device through its paces to find out what low-power really means and how Thingstream compares with GPRS. Go figure, HERE
Exciting Opportunities
Personalization And Omnichannel: Bringing Retail Customer Experience Full Circle (And Then Some) (Forbes)
‘Customer experience personalization is powerful stuff. It can transform a generic customer interaction into one that will leave the customer engaged and enthused about doing business with your company again.’ Micah Solomon? Clever fella. Read his article HERE.
5 Performance Marketing Basics in an Omni-Channel World (Martechadvisor.com)
Today’s tech-savvy customers seamlessly move from one channel to another before making any specific purchase decision. They get inspired by one channel, start their purchase on another and finish it off on a completely different channel. 5 basic rules you can adapt to optimize impact from your campaigns and results are HERE
How To Survive And Thrive In An Omni Channel World (Dynamic Business)
You know today’s customers expect to be able to contact you through a variety of channels and want prompt and excellent customer service 24/7, but as a small business owner you just don’t have the time to fully wrap your already busy mind around what ‘omnichannel’ is or how it can help your business. Sound familiar? Sound advice, HERE
Personalization at scale: What’s the tech again? (ZD Net)
How do you go about finding and implementing the technology that allows you to personalize your interactions with thousands of customers? And what are the differences between data, information, knowledge and insight? Find out HERE
Exciting Opportunities
Doctor, doctor, I feel like my IoT-enabled vacuum cleaner is spying on me (The A Register)
It sucks! Security researchers at Positive Technologies have announced that Dongguan Diqee 360 smart vacuum cleaners contain security flaws that hackers can exploit to snoop on people through the night-vision camera and mic, and take control of the Roomba rip-off. Exciting Opportunities? Get down and dirty, HERE
Content Recommendation Engine Market-Increase In Emphasis On Enhancing Customer Experience (Cmfe News)
Increase in emphasis on enhancing customer experience is a key factor expected to drive the content recommendation engine market. Rapid digitization is anticipated to boost the deployment of content recommendation engine platforms. HERE
More Vending Insight on PV? HERE
