We found this fascinating article this morning about C & A- Caio Cardoso. A Brazilian Retailer who uses Facebook "likes" on its clothing hangers to promote the items.
Facebook is constantly absorbing our real-life data that we contribute to the social network, but one Brazilian clothing store is taking Facebook’s data and throwing it back into the physical world. C&A is putting 'real-time likes' counters on its hangers in retail stores around Brazil. The Like data is taken from C&A’s Facebook page, where the company has listed its various wares for people to interact with. When a person Likes an item, that Like shows up on the hanger, it is meant to help customers with purchasing decisions. "When woman go shopping, they always feel insecure and want a second opinion. But one second opinion is never enough". If they are unsure of one item, they can see how many people online think the product is a good buy. The problem is, so much of online shopping is based on a picture. An image online says nothing about the fit, fabric, or quality of the clothing. If you’ve got a poorly made, ill-fitting shirt, you’re probably not going to be swayed into buying the piece just because it has 482 likes on Facebook. Similarly, if the item has only two likes, but makes you look like great you’re probably going to buy it regardless of its online popularity. Apparently the idea is not doing so well in European establishments, however it has created a lot of talk. It’s a funny way to integrate into the pulse of social media, but the idea shows how stores are finding new opportunities to use Facebook’s data in marketing outside of the digital world.
Retailers in New Zealand do seem to be struggling to compete with the world wide web sales, so we think that it's not a bad idea to push the idea of this fusion between online and the physical somehow. Food for thought anyway.
H & F
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