Streetwear chain General Pants has staked an Australian first for its national network.
The group has officially unveiled its latest innovation in the retail space as an Australian-first digital initiative titled General Pants Kiosks (Kiosks).
Displayed on Apple iPads, the interactive Kiosks fuse music, fashion and social media to create an experience that guides, informs and entertains consumers. The Kiosks will initially be installed in 10 General Pants stores across NSW and rolled out across the brand's 47 stores nationally by February 2014.
The launch also marks over six months of development to create a seamless omni-channel platform for the brand and is the result of research derived from insights and analytics over the last year,
To bring its new vision to the fore, General Pants also joined forces with a team of technology developers and providers both locally and overseas.
These partners include Digital Arts Network (DAN) which was the lead technical and creative partners on the project and had a major role in the creation of insta-opinion, Responsys which enabled the automation of individualised communications to General Pants consumers, and hybris and Epicor whose platforms enabled General Pants to integrate its e-commerce and ERP solutions into the Kiosks. As well as the ERP platform, Epicor provides the tools that enable the unification of inventory across all the sales channels.
In addition to their role in encouraging customer engagement the Kiosks are also armed with powerful centralised management systems and sophisticated data analysis tools that wil allow General Pants to guide, connect with and react to the consumer shopping journey “like never before”.
Each of the General Pants Kiosks will have the following functions:
Insta-Opinion: This section of the Kiosk allows consumers to photograph themselves in an item or hold an item up in front of the camera they’re considering purchasing and submit that photo in real-time for feedback from other Kiosk users, approximately 300 devices across the country. In seconds, the Kiosk user will see a percentage of who’s given their outfit the thumbs up or thumbs down.
What’s Playing: This section allows General Pants Kiosk consumers to select what tracks gets played in store. General Pants has collaborated with The Naked and Famous to create playlists exclusively available to consumers via the ‘What’s Playing’ section of the Kiosks. The Kiosk user selects the track that they would like to hear which then goes into a queue to be broadcast through the speakers across the whole General Pants store. The ‘What’s Playing’ function is powered by Spotify, and if you want more tracks added to the kiosk all you have to do is #GPRequests on twitter and we will add your tracks to the playlist for next time you come in and shop.
Our Picks: ‘Our Picks’ features the latest curated trends in clothing and accessories which consumers can choose to browse, purchase in-store, email to themselves or order from the Kiosk and have their items shipped directly to the their home. Kiosk users will be able to select individual items from the campaign shoots, press the ‘help’ button, the music will dip and a chime rings and a General Pants staff member will be over to assist the consumer and find the exact or similar item.
Our People: 'Our People' will curate user-generated photographs from General Pants staff and customers, featuring their self-created General Pants looks that have been shared across Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram. Kiosk users can browse through the user-generated images and purchase General Pants product that features in the photograph. This consumer-to-consumer shopping tool aims to bring to life the street-styled looks that are synonymous with the General Pants brand. Consumers who want to join and feature across all the General Pants channels are guided to use the #generalpants tag.
What’s New: 'What’s New' features all the latest clothing and accessories that have just arrived at General Pants, sorted alphabetically by brand for ease and updated on a daily basis. This will enable shoppers to see product that is available across all our stores, allowing General Pants to showcase everything new without it taking up valuable retail space. When a customer zeros in on something they like they have the option of assistance, sending the product to their phone our purchasing it on the spot for delivery to their home.
What’s Happening: ‘What’s Happening’ is a curation of the GP marketing, buying team and the store crew contributing to what is happening in the business. This section of the site tells customers when the next concert tickets go on sale, shows them the latest exclusive collaboration, new product that has just arrived in store and any famous people that have dropped by, in addition to behind-the-scenes information on what goes on in the General Pants world.
Our Site: A version of the General Pants e-commerce site where consumers can browse through all clothing and accessories. If consumers have seen something online at home but can’t find it in store this can also use as a tool to show the staff what they have seen.
Help: This tool assists consumers in navigating the Kiosk and alerts staff to any other queries they may have.
Commenting on the launch General Pants CEO Craig King said it marks a new era for the brand.
“There are plenty of buzz words going around, omni –channel, bricks-and-clicks, user experience etc. Rather than fall into a category we took a step back and focused on what our customers were doing. We asked ourselves what are we doing for them, how can we better communicate our stories and how do we enrich their experience? Our responses helped conceptualise the kiosks.
“What’s exciting about retail now is that technology has caught up to imagination. This opens the door to endless possibilities but rather than drown your customers in tech it’s a chance to seamlessly engage them in your brand whilst merging with current social phenomena. We have taken key insights we have learnt in recent years and used these to develop the Kiosks. We have made sure they encompass everything our consumer has been asking for, including social integration, time poor options for shopping, peer to peer shopping, music, fashion, technology and entertainment all curated by the ‘global trend hunters’ the General Pants team.”