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Realtime "Likes" displayed on retailer's clothing hangers

theverge.com

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Re: Realtime "Likes" displayed on retailer's clothing hangers

#11

Post by postit »

sargun wrote: post #10
waiwai933 wrote: post #8

Is there any way for the hangers to detect what clothing is currently on them (e.g. RFID)? If not, how are they going to deal with the issue when clothing inevitably ends up on the wrong hanger, if at all?

The better question is, does it actually matter? If this is a marketing ploy then we can just assume that its an attention grabber. For all we know, it could be a PRNG that increments when it feels like it.

I went to iguatemi shopping in sao paulo to test this stuff, it it apparently work, there's no rocket science behind it, because, you're not allowed to take those pieces from the hanger since they are a simple "thermometer".

Re: Realtime "Likes" displayed on retailer's clothing hangers

#12

Post by MichaelApproved »

Great marketing for their Facebook page. How many people will have fun with this by finding the item on their phone and hitting like just to watch the counter go up?

They drive more people to their Facebook page to like something which will drive more people to the page and store.

Of course, of this happens, it'll be a short lived novelty. We'll see how much this helps afterwards.

Re: Realtime "Likes" displayed on retailer's clothing hangers

#13

Post by marquis »

neonkiwi wrote: post #5

The gamble being made here is that customers want to buy clothing that is popular. I wonder if this might signal the exact opposite of what a shopper is looking for. Instead of clothing being an expression of unique individuality, he or she sees the huge number of people who have 'liked,' and possibly purchased the same item. Not that customers are normally fooled of course, but the volume of sales aren't usually bro…

Well, from a women's perspective certainly in terms of mainstream shopping environments I would generalize that shoppers want to know that what they are buying conforms to the status quo. So, in the right environment a Like button could do very well to increase sales of certain items. Those who are comfortable buying on their own taste level will likely be turned off by a Like button or would be shopping in another kind of area, such as second hand or locally made. There are also things such as bras and underwear that are Liked because of how comfortable or effective they are: women definitely like to share this information.

Re: Realtime "Likes" displayed on retailer's clothing hangers

#14

Post by [deleted] »

neonkiwi wrote: post #5

The gamble being made here is that customers want to buy clothing that is popular. I wonder if this might signal the exact opposite of what a shopper is looking for. Instead of clothing being an expression of unique individuality, he or she sees the huge number of people who have 'liked,' and possibly purchased the same item. Not that customers are normally fooled of course, but the volume of sales aren't usually bro…

[deleted]

Re: Realtime "Likes" displayed on retailer's clothing hangers

#15

Post by sliverstorm »

corin_ wrote: post #3

I wonder if the logic behind this is straight-faced usage ("people will find it useful when shopping") or marketing ("this sets us apart - nobody will really care, but it will grab their attention"). I hope it's the latter, because the former would seem to me to be a hilarious case of trying to compete with etailers at their game, without realising what a flawed strategy that is. But I've met plenty of people I can i…

the former would seem to me to be a hilarious case of trying to compete with etailers at their game

You may be thinking of it wrong. Online has advantages, brick-and-mortar has advantages. If brick-and-mortar can start to take away some of the advantages of online, they can out-compete by virtue of their natural advantages.

Re: Realtime "Likes" displayed on retailer's clothing hangers

#16

Post by anigbrowl »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #12

Great marketing for their Facebook page. How many people will have fun with this by finding the item on their phone and hitting like just to watch the counter go up? They drive more people to their Facebook page to like something which will drive more people to the page and store. Of course, of this happens, it'll be a short lived novelty. We'll see how much this helps afterwards.

I think this has quite a bit of utility for store operators as well as consumers, although I wonder how they deal with the problem of confirmation bias. Far from being gimmicky, this looks like the start of a trend to me.
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