Automated Locker Prompting for Impulse Purchases at Order Pickup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online shopping reduces opportunities for retailers to capture impulse purchases, as customers often pick up orders without entering retail spaces where impulse items are displayed, impacting revenue for both retailers and product manufacturers.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that detects customer position using Bluetooth, geofencing, or camera technology to transmit impulse purchase prompts, automatically opens automated lockers, and dispenses products before the customer arrives, with temperature-controlled compartments for perishable items.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If online shopping is used for predetermined selections, then customer convenience is improved, but impulse purchase opportunities are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by detecting customer arrival at pickup locations and proactively transmitting impulse purchase prompts to customer mobile devices before they physically arrive at the pickup point. This advance prompting capitalizes on the customer's existing trip while maintaining the convenience of online ordering, thereby resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and impulse purchase revenue.
2Productivity
If automated locker systems are used for order pickup, then operational efficiency is improved, but customer interaction opportunities are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces mobile device notifications as an intermediary between the automated locker system and the customer. The notification serves as a mediator that delivers impulse purchase prompts without requiring direct human interaction or physical contact with the automated locker, thus maintaining operational efficiency while still providing customer engagement and interaction opportunities.
3Loss of time
If impulse purchase prompts are transmitted in advance, then purchase decision time is reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system leverages the customer's existing mobile device, which they already carry and use for the online ordering process, as the platform for delivering impulse purchase prompts. This multi-functional use of the mobile device (for both order management and impulse purchase promotion) eliminates the need for separate dedicated prompting hardware, thereby reducing system complexity while still achieving rapid purchase decision capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of prompting impulse purchases includes detecting a position of a customer at an impulse purchase location via an impulse purchase prompt initiator, automatically transmitting, via the impulse purchase prompt initiator, an impulse purchase prompt to the customer, fulfilling, in near-real time, an impulse purchase request transmitted by the customer in response to the impulse purchase prompt via the impulse purchase prompt initiator automatically sending a signal to a communications module of an automated locker, and automatically opening the at least one storage compartment and dispensing a product associated with the impulse purchase. The automated locker includes storage that is temperature controlled so as to lower a temperature of the product, and the impulse purchase prompt is only automatically transmitted in response to the temperature of the product being equal to or less than a predetermined temperature.