Emma’s Enkel, a German start-up retail convenience store is enjoying enormous growth and recognition for its family-inspired values and modern approach to food retailing.
Emma’s Enkel is trialling a polytouch all-in-one multi-touch system to close the gap between physical and virtual shopping giving customers a fifth channel for purchasing fresh and non-perishable food, toiletries and household goods.
‘Mom and pop’ shop revival
The Emma’s Enkel (Emma’s grandson) concept was conceived by young entrepreneurs Sebastian Diehl and Benjamin Brüser in October 2011 with the intention of reawakening the traditional corner shop experience with a contemporary twist.
Their vision was the return to a more emotional and less anonymous form of shopping after the displacement of small grocery stores by large discount stores and major retail chains. This award-winning formula – combining the best from the good old ‘mom and pop’ shops with the benefits of modern technology and new media – is an innovative example of cross-channel shopping.
Located in Düsseldorf’s city centre, Emma’s Enkel offers over 2,000 products and is continuously increasing its range of stock, in-store and in the warehouse. Customers currently have four different ordering methods to choose from depending on their purchasing habits.
They can hand a shopping list over the counter for an assistant to shop and pack for them while relaxing in the coffee corner. They can purchase goods online via iPad or smartphone using the in-store free Wi-Fi internet service and wait for their goods to be prepared.
They can place an order online from home or work and have the goods delivered for free within two hours in Düsseldorf. Finally, if customers are passing by outside of opening hours, they can shop via their smartphones using the QR code wall in the store window. The wall acts as a virtual store shelf with over 400 products on display.
A new ecommerce era
As of June 2012, a pilot project is underway at Emma’s Enkel to introduce a fifth distribution channel, which closes the gap between physical and virtual shopping.
A point-of-sale multi-touch platform, OXID POS, is currently being trialled that allows customers to browse, select and purchase products from the online shop while in-store.
They chose multi-touch technology to offer the same level of engagement that customers get from their smartphones and tablets. The platform helps guide customers around the Emma’s Enkel online shop in an intuitive way. Users can flick through content, drag to zoom and pinch to minimise products on the screen.
The polytouch experience
The platform’s integrated polytouch 32 system features state-of-the-art Projected Capacitive Touch (PCT) technology supports 10 simultaneous touches in a 10 millisecond response time. It also offers palm rejection, creating a natural and responsive user experience.
In the case of OXID POS, polytouch 32 was fitted with scanner, camera and printer extension modules. The e-commerce platform offers a world first by using the PayPal QR Shopping App, whereby customers can scan a product’s QR-code on the screen with their smartphone and the item appears on their display.
They can then add the item to the app’s shopping cart and automatically link to their PayPal account to make the payment. The printer module produces a receipt, which the customer can then take to the counter and collect their goods.
Why multi-touch in retail?
These devices offer stores a kiosk solution that connects to the web to facilitate multi-channel strategies such as cross-selling, product promotion applications and social network integration. As Emma’s Enkel and other retailers are finding, today’s big multi-touch screens open up a range of opportunities for e-commerce in-store.
This new level of multi-channel shopping means that customers have the flexibility to shop any way they like, 24 hours a day. This compelling, nostalgia-meets-modern, customer-focused concept sets a benchmark and is inspiring retailers across Europe to rethink the approach to multi-channel retailing.
emmas-enkel.de
Speak Your Mind