Wal-Mart Plans Video 'Narrowcasting' Displays Throughout Canada Stores
Last week, EK3 announced the WalMart Canada deal - 20 screens each in 350 stores.
Now, Information Week has a piece with interesting detail - apparently WalMart are planning to key the content on the screens to inventory levels.
Once tied into store inventory systems, the EK3 systems could automatically trigger messages promoting overstocked items, for example. They also can be programmed to detect changes in weather, and serve up promotions for beach supplies or tank tops, for example, if the weather suddenly turns warm.
Wal-Mart Canada plans to talk about its plans at the National Retail Federation Show in New York City in January, according to EK3...
Tim Horton's, a chain of 2,500 Canadian coffee shops that throws out any unsold fresh doughnuts after four hours, uses EK3 displays in its stores to promote doughnuts that are approaching their expiration time.
This is an interesting angle, undoubtedly heavily dependent on their RFID efforts – wonder how they’ll tie those together? After all that’s the best route to tracking actual inventory levels (as opposed to “Here’s what we think we have” levels) in-store.
Their RFID push seems to be morphing, with more emphasis on the front of the store – see here
Thanks to Rob Webber for the InfoWeek piece