2012 100 - Networld Media Group

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INTERACTIVE STOREFRONT WINDOWS
Saks Fifth Ave. and Starbucks were
among those pushing the boundaries
of interactive storefront displays to
captivate passers-by in high-traffic locations.
EBay introduced interactive
store windows in New York City and
San Francisco encouraging holiday
shoppers to make charitable donations
to Toys for Tots by scanning a QR code.
Displays fronting Starbucks stores in
Toronto and Vancouver encouraged
passers-by to assemble their favorite
Tazo teas using gesture controls via a
vinyl screen and projector, while Saks
and Stylelist.com tapped downtown
agency Gin Lane Media to create a
three-window display featuring 64 iPad
2s and nine 27-inch flat-panel Cinema
Displays for the high-end retailer’s
flagship Fifth Avenue store. The display
featured original imagery, streaming
content, tweets from around the Web
and user-submitted photos with the
#StylelistatSaks hashtag. Running a native
iPad application built specifically
for the installation on a local network,
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all the iPads were able to talk “to each
other to produce elegant fades and
control what device should display,”
said Gin Lane’s Digital Creative Director
Dan Kenger.
SMALLER STORE FORMATS
As consumers continue to do more shopping online, big-box retailers
are attempting to stay profitable and reduce under-utilized
space by moving to smaller store formats. Safeway and Walmart are
among the latest to follow the trail blazed by Tesco’s Fresh & Easy
Neighborhood Market. The advantages of smaller formats include
greater flexibility, proximity to local markets, a quicker shopping
experience, new store development options, solutions for recycling
older units, and lower break-even points. According to Marketwise,
62 percent of Walmart’s newest stores are small-format Walmart
Express, most of them in underserved rural and urban areas. The
chain’s small-format Walmart Express stores typically carry between
11,000 to 13,000 items, compared with the more than 100,000 items
found in a Supercenter. “Small stores are going to be a very good
growth opportunity for us,” says William S. Simon, president and
chief executive of Walmart’s domestic business, “because they allow
us to get access in places we are not in today.”
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