Stores using technology to drive traffic and sales

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Social media offers pop-up stores plenty of opportunities to let people know where they can be found. In this way, they reach a relevant audience. In this way, pop-up stores can have an indirect positive effect on the surrounding stores, not only because they occupy vacant retail space, but also because they generate extra traffic. @Socialijs is an “old-fashioned” ice cream man who uses social media. He uses Twitter to let people know where he can be found in Utrecht.

The use of social media in retail is still in its infancy. Research by the Amsterdam University brother cell phone list of Applied Sciences from 2011 shows that 44% of all retailers use social media. Online retailers use social media considerably more than regular retailers: approximately six out of ten online retailers (or retailers with both an online and one or more physical stores) compared to approximately three out of ten regular stores. Regular retailers use Facebook and Twitter on a modest scale, for example, to inform interested parties about promotions and offers. The intention of this, as with other forms of advertising, is to increase the number of visitors to the store.

A small number of clothing stores in the Netherlands, for example WE in Nijmegen, own a Tweet Mirror. This is a mirror that makes it possible to send a photo of yourself via Twitter or e-mail from a clothing store. In this way, your friends can advise you remotely on a purchase. The aim of the mirror is, among other things, to persuade the growing internet generation to visit physical stores instead of online stores.

Free Wi-Fi is used to increase the number of visits but also the duration of the visits. In the Netherlands, this is currently mainly done in the hospitality industry, for example at Starbucks. However, at the beginning of 2012, a six-month trial with free Wi-Fi was also started at a number of Albert Heijn branches . The aim of the trial is to investigate whether customers need Wi-Fi and to stimulate the use of the shopping app Appie.