London shopping thoroughfare Regent’s Street is to become a beacon hotspot, with every store along its mile length – including Apple, Hamleys, Longchamp, Burberry, Banana Republic, Hugo Boss and Anthropologie —expected to install beacons to broadcast offers to shoppers as they walk past the shop front. About 100 stores have already been fitted with the technology.
The street will get its own app that will then receive offers and information from retailers and restaurants along the length of the world famous street. The mobile retail initiative, which is part of an on-going £1 billion Regent Street modernisation programme, will be advertised on double-decker buses and on signs along the shopping area.
The app, created by US agency autoGraph, allows users to indicate their shopping habits by swiping up or down (to indicate likes and dislikes) on a series of 40 well-known brands. The app will then build up a customer profile to determine which brands they see marketing messages from. 100 shops have already signed up to the initiative, but all are expected to fall into line over the summer.
“We want Regent Street to continue to evolve as the world’s most successful shopping destination, which means bringing together online, physical and mobile retailing and using the latest technology to create an experience which delivers across all of the platforms that appeal to 21st century shoppers,” said David Shaw, head of The Crown Estate’s Regent Street Portfolio.
Paul Lorraine, UK general manager of Longchamp, adds: “Success in retail in the 21st century is strongly linked to how you engage your customers in store and online. Regent Street already has a reputation as being the place to be for brands like ours and the new mobile app will bring the digital and physical together, providing an exciting new way for us to speak to our customers.”
