Enterprise marketing company Adobe was set to unveil new tools at its Adobe Summit on Tuesday morning that it says will help marketers “take digital experiences into physical spaces,” including wearables and connected retail experiences.
At the centre of the update is Adobe Experience Manager, a cross-device content management system for its Marketing Cloud product. Marketers will be familiar with the AEM toolset for building websites and mobile apps, but a new addition called AEM Screens integrates templates for interactive in-store and OOH touch-screen experiences (as well as apps for connected cars, smart watches and other IoT devices).
Adobe says that with Screens, marketers can design customer experiences that seamlessly transition from any one connected screen to any other.
Senior director of strategy and product marketing Loni Stark was set to present an example of an enhanced car shopping experience to summit attendees. She envisions a consumer’s journey that starts with visiting a dealership’s AEM-built website. With the shoppable media functions built into the site, the customer talks with their family and customizes the features and style they’re looking for.
Next, they transfer the configuration to a mobile device, so they can find the closest dealership and book time with the dealer. Once they get to the store, they can transfer the custom options they’ve chosen to an in-store screen, and have a collaborative conversation with the dealer about what they want.
“You could see it also being used for a financial wealth-management app, going into an in-person experience and starting to ideate with an advisor,” Stark said. “There’s a lot of data that shows cross-channel customers are the most valuable, and the most loyal, and yet up until now retailers have been handicapped in their ability to deliver these experiences.”
Despite the growth of e-comm, she said that Adobe expects brick-and-mortar stores will remain an essential point of contact between retailers and consumers.
“We talk a lot about the growth of e-commerce, and yet globally… pure online commerce still only counts for about 10% of all commerce transactions,” she said.
Rather than trying to drive those consumers online, Adobe’s new features are intended to help retailers introduce digital elements to the brick-and-mortar customer experience, she said.
That extends to store operations and analytics as well. Adobe has added in-store customer analytics based on mobile beacon data, so retailers and advertisers can track and visualize foot traffic patterns, dwell times and push notification interactions. Based on this data Adobe Analytics will suggest optimal store layouts to increase profitability.
