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THE IMPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR SHOPPERSIN 2016
INTRODUCTION
CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show, hosted early January in Las Vegas, has become the global go-to event for everything tech.
Whilst the show’s first outing occurred in 1967, the reality is that today’s enormous event now offers up much more than consumer electronics as it spans every human-related category from domestic living, commerce and travel to apparel, physical performance and wellbeing.
The implication of being across the latest technological developments provides brands and retailers insight and inspiration to improve and develop shopper conversation relevance, connection channel appropriateness, motivating incentives and new methods of interaction.
The MARS Agency sent a team of US and European colleagues along to the show to establish the key take-outs for 2016 and how tomorrow’s technology will influence shoppers today.
HOME LIFE ENHANCERS
The domestic application of IOT (internet of things) was heavily prevalent at CES offering complete platform solutions from global players such as Samsung’s Smart Things along with a host of component solutions provided by up and coming hardware start-ups.
Beyond the steadily growing early adopters of connected home platforms, 2016 is realistically the year for shoppers to consider technology and appliance purchases with a view to understanding their future integration compliance capabilities.
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HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Possibly the most dynamic section of CES were the halls given over to the Health and Wellness industry, delivering a breadth of solutions to help humans accurately self measure, care or improve their performance and wellbeing. Whilst it’s not a new sector, there’s rapid year-to-year growth in the industry’s tech-capability.
2016 will see the continued boom of shoppers choosing wearable alert and measurement technology in extending formats that include wrist, dynamic-app mobile, remote sensor gadgets, clothing and ‘headware’.
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MOBILE TRANSACTING
The adoption of mobile payments over the past 12 months has seen this behaviour move from niche to the mainstream and core players in this space were using CES to land grab their claim to the most efficient shopper-pay solutions.
With the notable absence of Apple at CES, making the biggest impact were Samsung and their Paywallet that boasts the widest retail POS hardware compatibility along with Mastercard who pushed their payment app’s omni-channel capability.
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NEXT GENERATION AUTOMATION
There was a renewed sense of believability around intelligent hardware that purposes to help, or make redundant, a wide range of everyday lifestyle tasks, ranging from CES show-stopper driverless cars to clever fridges, domestic robots, drones and time-saver mechanisms.
Shoppers are now being credibly exposed to tech that can improve – and usefully change – their everyday lives with immediate possibilities around domestic chores, mobility, grocery shopping and mundane repetitive tasks.
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DESIRABLE TECH
CES exposed the stylistic refinement of existing technology, featuring heavily on wearables, domestic-must-haves plus travel and entertainment hardware.
The tech-solution owners have forged an array of partnerships with designer brands including Adidas, Burberry, L’Oreal, Tag Heuer and DKNY to name a few, providing instant integrity and new impetus to drive desire for the latest gadget.
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SECURITY TECH
There is a broadening offer of hardware and software that lined up protection as it’s core benefit. Whilst personal data led the way at CES in security, many other aspects of life have been given the peace-of-mind layer.
Shoppers will be switching into gadgets that wirelessly alert them – and other organisations –when their skin, children, clothing, luggage, pets, home and personal items are threatened with harm.
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VIRTUAL CONTENT
VR has established itself as the evergreen exciting development at CES and the last couple of years have seen the most progress in terms of content capability, quality and user accessibility. 2016 is the VR pivot point delivering brilliant 360⁰ realism via readily available consumer hardware.
Whilst gaming is the progressive Virtual Reality no-brainer, retail and entertainment content will be presented to shoppers for engaging life-like remote experiences.
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