The check-out hijackers are waiting for your trolley

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday August 7, 2014

You are pushing your trolley through Coles doing the weekly shop and pick up a six-pack of continental soft drink. As you reach the check-out a message dings on your phone. "Six pack of Chinotto half price today at Woolworths," the store is a hundred metres down the road. You decide that shop might be a better place to buy the drinks.

Now I'm just supposing here, but that scenario is perfectly feasible - all the technology exists right now, and it's how shopping competition will intensify in the future.

Product numbering has been around a long time - every product now has its barcode. But it's the information technology that has grown spectacularly in recent years.

Last week Quantium Group director Tony Davis told the ADMA Direct Marketing Forum about the possibility of such a product hijack. It is already being practised in the US by the huge WalMart chain. But they have much more.

They have a huge database of the customer's spending, product preferences, finances, location - all accumulated over years. Of course here in Australia the large retailers have their own sacks of data about you, and it is being meticulously sorted right now.

From your past spending pattern they can tell where you live, what you eat, your fashion inclination; your expenditure pattern tells them what you are worth. Getting to the present, geopositioning tells them exactly where you are and what you have just put in the basket.

Never, you cry, who on earth allowed them to gather up all this data? Well you did, don't you remember? Numerous times over recent years you have bought a product or service on line or taken out a contract, and signed that little box "I have read and understand the conditions". You've given them dozens of approvals.

But don't get glum, look on the good side. In Britain they call it Omni-Channel Retailing and it's based around product information like barcodes on steroids. These are called Radio Frequency Information - RFID. They are attached to products and price tags - maybe sewn into the lining of a jacket or bag.

So for example at Burberry's beautiful London flagship the store mirrors will recognise the coat you are trying on, tell you about it, where it was made, what accessories would go best with it. ("Mirror mirror on the wall, is this mac for me at all?")

Another technology is NFC - you know, when two smartphones can exchange information just by touching - this can be built into shop shelves to flag you over to look at an accessory that will be perfect for the garment you are carrying.

Oh you can then be connected through your Facebook and Twitter accounts to ask all your friends what they think about it too.

Being a tiny device, the RFID can be left "switched on" after the purchase. For example, Italian leather company Braccialini sews its chips into its premium handbags and they retain details of the sale, authenticity and warrantee.

So even as I ponder Big Brother looking down at us, these innovations can also be beneficial - to the customer as well as the retailer.

Sybille Korrodi is a European advocate who thinks the importance is in how it's done. "Customers will appreciate if they're informed. Brands that proactively communicate, and use RFID technology for customer experience will benefit the most."

In other words, tell them the benefits, get their consent, and don't be sneaky.