Retailers will soon be able to track live foot traffic data and offer customers personalized in-store offers through mobile apps.
Adobe recently announced several updates to its Experience Cloud platform at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2018 conference in New York City. In addition to tracking live foot traffic (a function that’s still being tested) retailers will be able to take third-party data from inventory, CRM and POS systems to create new offers for customers. The technology will be similar to what’s currently being done with beacon technology, but will eliminate the need for customers’ mobile devices to have Bluetooth turned on.
A new set of commerce microservices were also shown off at NRF, which will be built on Adobe I/O Runtime. In addition to their customization and ability to automate certain processes, Adobe says they can be integrated across all channel partners and come with CommerceTools, ElasticPath, Digital River, Hybris and Magneto.
Adobe also wants to introduce retailers to VR this spring in the form of new panoramic and VR tools.
The company prefaced its software updates by pointing to the record-high online sales during the 2017 holiday season, of $108.2 billion USD, which represented a nearly 18 per cent year-over-year growth, according to Adobe Analytics. Mobile contributed greatly to that revenue with $35.9 billion, making up more than 33 per cent of the holiday season’s online revenue. Adobe added 43 per cent of millennials prefer to research products online before shopping in-store.