Today’s shopping innovations

Over the last 10 years, the concept of shopping has changed from being a physical, in-store only, experience to being a mix of physical and digital experience. Digital technology rapidly expanded beyond online reviews and coupons to become an integral part of the shopping process – from buying to customer service and everything in between. The lines between physical and digital shopping are becoming blurred today, as mobile devices become embedded in the shopping experience.

Below there are the top innovations that will continue to evolve and have a significant impact on how each of us shops and how companies sell, market and make a profit.

- Ads that stalk you: Those cookies websites set are going to follow us everywhere. Ads when you enter a store or aisle or even head down the street will start to follow you across different touch points in the digital and physical world.

- Any surface becomes a display: Ultra thin, transparent digital displays and next generation digital billboards that will continue to evolve starting to cover shelves, signs and walls at a store near you in the next 18 months.

- Find what you need: Mobile apps, such as Fast Mall and Grocery IQ work together with in-store digital displays to help you find stores and stuff faster while also exploring some things you didn’t know were there, from apps like Nearby Now.

- Find a bargain: Use an app to scan product barcodes or take a picture of it on the shelf and instantly find best price, product review, or even eco ratings. There are a host of apps you can use for this, some free, some fee based. A few popular examples: Google Shopper, Google Goggles, GoodGuide.

- Find a surprise: Loyalty and location based, just-in-time bargains, timed promotions and exclusive events instantly appear on a mobile phone or aisle display as a customer enters the store, walks down an aisle or visits a certain neighborhood. Just out, the shopkick app has big partners on board like Macy’s, Best Buy, American Eagle Outfitters and the Simon Property Group. Gilt organizes exclusive events for the loyalty crowd. Google is also working on an app that lets you preview what shops have before you even visit.

- Get it now: Always on, vending machine offerings and new designs will continue to evolve as companies regularly turn 300% more profit from machines compared to per square foot sales in a physical store. This high margin, always on space has proven effective in Japan over the last few years and continues to expand around the world.

- Find the perfect fit: From your sofa or an in store digital “mirror display,” technology is ready to handle the virtual “try on” with anything from clothes, watches, eye shadow, glasses or that new tattoo you wanted. Piloted by Prada in their flagship store back in early 2002, today’s evolution is ready. The one thing to watch out for here is the experience that surrounds this virtual try on. Those who get it right will be rewarded, the brands who don’t will have wasted time, money and potentially damaged their reputation with consumers.

- Connecting the data: Most of the technology and data has been on the back-end of stores (think supply chain, inventory) and over the last few years it has started to explode into the front of the store (think digital signage, traffic analysis, restocking). With all this new technology comes more information, and data mining and analysis will continue to drive dollars by improving customer service and targeted advertising/offers that become more and more critical for future success.

A-Z

Vocabulary Study

9. Study the following words and phrases:

aisle	проход между рядами
app	приложение
barcode	штрих-код
blurred	неясный, расплывчатый
critical	важный; решающий
data mining	сбор данных
digital signage	цифровая рекламно-информационная система
embedded in	внедрённый
evolve	развиваться
fee	плата
flagship	главный
head (down the street)	направляться
host	зд. масса, множество
margin	прибыль, разница между покупной и продажной ценой, маржа
promotion	продвижение товара
restocking	возобновление запасов
stalk	преследовать, выслеживать
supply chain	цепочка поставок
timed	спланированный во времени
touch points	точки соприкосновения с клиентами
transparent	прозрачный
vending machine	торговый автомат
watch out for	остерегаться

Lexis

10. Match the words with their definitions:

1. restocking	a. a piece of text stored on a user’s computer by their web browser
2. shopkick app	b. the interface of a product, a service or a brand with customers, non-customers, employees and other stakeholders – before, during and after a transaction respectively a purchase
3. bargain	c. providing a place with a new supply of goods
4. cookies	d. information on displays in public places
5. touchpoints	e. something that costs less than normal
6. digital signage	f. the first mobile appendix that gives you rewards and offers simply for walking into stores, for scanning products, and for signing up friends

11. Match two halves of the sentences and translate them into Russian:

1. Digital technology rapidly expanded 2. These innovations 3. There are a host 4. Information about bargains and promotions instantly appear 5. Per square foot

a. of ads everywhere b. on a customer’s mobile phone c. to become an integral part of the shopping process d. sales have increased dramatically this year e. will have a significant impact on shopping

12. Fill in the gaps with one of the following words and expressions. Use the correct forms of the verbs:

blurred	embedded	get one’s hands on
stalk	watch out for	take advantage of

1. When you go shopping to a flea market you should … pick-pockets.

2. Advertisements … us everywhere.

3. Mobile phones have become … in our everyday life.

4. As soon as he became the big boss he … the company’s funds.

5. I can’t recognize her on this photo. The image is ….

6. Ann... the discounts on clothes and bought herself a new dress.

13. Find collocations from the text:

1. perfect	a. machine
2. eye	b. chain
3. flagship	c. store
4. vending	d. based
5. data	e. shadow
6. supply	f. mining
7. fee	g. fit

14. Give the English equivalents of the following words and expressions:

1. выгодная сделка; 2. покупка; 3. заворачивать; 4. прибыльность; 5. цифровой; 6. полка; 7. продвижение товара; 8. штрих код; 9. рекламный щит; 10. торговый автомат; 11. прибыль, маржа; 12. лояльность клиента; 13. прозрачный; 14. цепочка поставок; 15. проход (между рядами); 16. потребитель; 17. рекламное объявление; 18. время окончания; 19. товар (2 words); 20. выстраиваться в очередь; 21. отдельный предмет; 22. розничный торговец; 23. мода, всеобщее увлечение; 24. запас товара на складе; 25. жалоба

15. Fill in the right preposition where necessary:

1. Sales during Black Friday can account … 40% … the annual sales for many stores.

2. … the toy shop people lined … in anticipation … the sales.

3. The concept … shopping has changed a lot … the last ten years.

4. The lines … physical and digital shopping are becoming blurred.

5. These innovations will have a significant impact … all … us.

6. Apps can be used to take a picture … a product … the shelf.

7. … a physical store sales are measured … square foot.

8. How often do you go shopping … food?

9. I’m afraid this model is not available, it’s … … stock at the moment.

10. I’d like to try this suit …. Where is the fitting room?

Read the following text:

Black Friday, the first Friday after the American Thanksgiving, marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and is considered the day when store ledgers are pushed into “the black,” or profitability.

Sales during Black Friday and the weekend following can account for as much as 40 per cent of annual sales and profits for many stores.

U.S. retailers now mark the day by offering low prices on a range of products, and mobs of shoppers who want to take advantage of the bargains line up hours before stores open. Some people even camp out overnight.

Last year, a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death as shoppers stampeded into a store at Valley Stream, N.Y.

This year was tamer, with few injuries reported across the U.S.

At the Toys “R” Us store in Manhattan’s Times Square, people lined up 200 deep in anticipation of the midnight opening – five hours earlier than a year ago. Some were tourists who got in line right after watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade; others were New Yorkers wanting to get a good deal on game systems or get their hands on this year’s toy craze, Zhu Zhu Pets robotic hamsters.

In suburban Cincinnati, shoppers began streaming into a Wal-Mart Supercenter around midnight to pick up tickets that can be traded directly at the register for certain big items like sale-priced televisions and computers. The tickets, which usually have an expiry time, are used by some stores as a way of limiting the chaos inside the store and streamlining the purchase of some popular items.

By 4 a.m. shoppers were packed into the Wal-Mart alongside shrink-wrapped merchandise, including toys, that was not to be unveiled until 5 a.m. Most of the low prices had an expiry time of 11 a.m.

20. Read the following statements and decide whether they are true (T) or false (F). Correct the false ones:

1. Black Friday is the first Friday after Christmas.

2. Sales during Black Friday can be as much as two fifths of annual profits for many stores.

3. A lot of customers wanted to buy a popular toy at a bargain price.

4. The tickets for sale-priced goods can be used at any time.

5. Shrink-wrapped goods are to be unveiled by 11 a.m.

20. Choose the correct answers to the following questions:

1. “In the black” means:

a. with a profit b. with a loss c. without any change

2. On Black Friday most American stores

a. get a usual profit b. get a great profit c. lose money

A-Z

Vocabulary

21. Study the following words and phrases:

account for	составлять
anticipation	предчувствие
bargain	выгодная покупка
craze	мода, всеобщее увлечение
expiry	истечение срока
hamster	хомяк
injury	травма
ledger	гроссбух, бухгалтерская книга
line up	выстраиваться в очередь
merchandise	товары
mob	толпа
profitability	прибыльность, выгодность
purchase	покупка
shrink-wrap	заворачивать в термоусадочную плёнку
stampede	броситься бежать, подавшись стадному чувству
stream	течь
take advantage of	воспользоваться
tame	зд. скучный, банальный
Thanksgiving Day	День благодарения
unveil	раскрывать

Тема 2

Study the grammar reference: