Touchscreen assistance? Piece-de-resistance

Publication Date:  25 January 2012

What to do if you are a department store chain looking to capture customer traffic in areas where you are not currently represented?

In the case of Target, (one of Australia's most respected retailers, employing 25,000 staff in over 290 stores), the answer is to open a second chain of smaller format city centre outlets under the brand "Urban by Target".

These Urban stores are aimed at the modern city centre demographic and offer customers a new differentiated shopping experience. Along with carefully selected locations and specifically designed decor, lighting and fixtures, kiosks play a key role in this experience.

Target's Managing Director Laura Inman claims the company is, "Australia's first big box retailer to have an interactive customer assistant where shoppers can access store and product information". Evoke are well chuffed that their kiosk hardware has been selected for the task.

Writing up their experience of the recently opened Melbourne store the Australian retail blog, Activated Space said,"The piece-de-resistance for me was the touch screen for assistance. It featured the usual items like a store plan and directory but also a screen where you could provide feedback. The gem is the staff profile. There's a photo of each member along with answers to a bunch of conversation starter questions, like their favourite food or movie and what they love about the brand. For Dave his Target is "to make an infectious experience." I suspect Dave is a marketing student!"

Laura Inman says that the plan now is to roll out the Urban concept across the country having identified a number of key locations in each metro area, we at Evoke, along with partners Propel Interactive (www.propelinteractive.com.au), look forward to being involved.