“&found” being tested at JR East Ueno Station
A store with home appliances such as toasters, coffee makers, and hair dryers has opened in the premises of JR East's Ueno Station. It looks like a small electronics store, but there are no price tags on the products, so you can't buy them. In recent years, a series of showroom-type "non-selling shops" have appeared in the station stores.
The name of the store is "&found". JR East Cross Station Development Company (JRC, Shibuya, Tokyo), which operates commercial facilities in the station, and Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) collaborated and opened from July 15 to August 14, 2022 as a demonstration experiment. JRC's in-station location was combined with DNP's next-generation store creation technology.
More than 50 items are lined up in the store, and all items are available for rental. It's a rental business. Some of them were able to be borrowed on the spot and taken home. Focusing on home appliances such as fitness, beauty, and AV equipment, Dyson's "Dyson Supersonic Ionic Hair Dryer" with an actual price of 45,760 yen and Sony's wireless noise canceling stereo headset "WF- 1000XM4” product lineup. It is suitable for trying out products that are reluctant to purchase at a high price.
Rental items are lined up in the store. We considered installing some products that can be purchased, but considering the possibility of consumer confusion, we decided to only rent them.
To rent, register as a member of the rental app “Alice Style” operated by Peace Tech Lab (Shibuya, Tokyo). Alice Style is a subscription (flat-rate billing) service that costs 2,980 yen per month. In the app, more than 300 items are lined up, including products that are not placed in Andfound. There is no limit on the period of use, and you can return the product or borrow another product at any time. Return shipping is free. Via the app, even if you don't have to sign a rental contract on the spot, you can think about it after you get home and apply when you want to use it.
Alice style screen. You can choose from over 300 products in the app. The left is Sony's wireless noise canceling stereo headset rental screen
On the other hand, for companies that open stores, it is attractive not only for the promotion effect of the product itself, but also for obtaining data that can be used for marketing. The store analyzes quantitative data such as "number of visitors," "gender," "age," and "number of people who passed in front of the product," using images and beacons installed in the store.
There is a tablet terminal in the store, and the camera is used to analyze the "number of visitors", "gender", "age", etc.
In addition, it also acquires qualitative data that converts conversations between store clerks and customers into text data. Specifically, a microphone attached to the store clerk's chest records the conversation between the store clerk and the customer. After serving customers, the data is automatically converted into text by uploading it to the cloud through a dedicated app installed on the staff's smartphone. The store clerk determines the "category of the product that was served", the "gender", "age" of the customer, "whether it is an impulse visit or a purpose visit", etc. , The resolution of the customer is further enhanced.
The strength is that it is possible to collect customer reactions from these two directions and feed them back to each company as marketing data. Of course, it is said that the store will post a message that says, ``We are acquiring voice data,'' and the data will be used in a form that has been processed so that individuals cannot be identified.
There is a notice in the store that says, "Our shop is acquiring voice data."
Mr. Takahiro Muramatsu of DNP's Information Innovation Division says that of the two, ``Companies want more qualitative data.'' Beta Japan (Chiyoda, Tokyo), which leads the genre of stores that don't sell anything, has been collecting quantitative data at "b8ta," an experience-based store. I'm looking at it. This is because he believes that "data that shows why customers cannot make a purchase is valuable", which is difficult to draw out from customers. For example, is it because the price of the product is high, or is it because there is a specific product that you are worried about, or was the customer service not good? Answers to such negative questions from the store side will also be picked up from the conversation.
In addition, Miki Iwai of the same business department said, "From the data collected at the station store, it is known that more than 80% are impulsive visitors. There is a high tendency for people who happen to pass by and who often see the event space to visit the store. ' reveals. We believe that such data can be used for future store opening plans and marketing.
Demonstration experiment to start at Tokyo Station within FY2010
In the future, we will utilize the knowledge gained at Ueno Station and expand it horizontally to other stations to continue verification. During fiscal 2010, we plan to conduct an experiment at Tokyo Station as the second store. "Since there is not as much change in the number of customers between weekdays and weekends as at Ueno Station, there is a possibility that the data will not be accurate, but for now we are prioritizing data collection, and in the future we would like to expand to station outside areas." (JRC) Mr. Harita).
When purchasing a product, many people will try the real thing many times before making a decision. Focusing on this, it makes sense to set up a showroom-type store in a station store that many times pass by on the way to work or school. If the effect is proven at Ueno Station, new possibilities will be created for the station store business.
