Shopping with Noel Leeming’s ShopBot
At the beginning of this month (October), Noel Leeming had their yearly Massive Sell-Out at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane, Auckland. This event has been happening every year and unfortunately I was out of Auckland (after reviewing this lounge) so was not able to go take a look at this year’s sales. This year, Noel Leeming added a new tech solution for shoppers who didn’t want to be amongst the large crowds, called ShopBot.
ShopBot offered customers the chance to relax, put their feet up and sip on refreshments while a Noel Leeming staff member did the shopping for them, communicating to them via headphones and a monitor screen.
Each customer was introduced to their ShopBot, a Noel Leeming staff member, and given a headset to communicate with them.
Monitor screens in the ShopBot VIP area allowed the customer to see what the ShopBot was doing, where they were and what products they were looking at, all while the ShopBot offered suggestions, tips and answered questions.
The Noel Leeming Massive Sellout is one of the consumer electronic retail industry’s biggest sale events each year, consistently breaking Noel Leeming sales records over Boxing Day, which is traditionally considered the biggest sales opportunity of the year for retailers.
Noel Leeming conducted research last year which found that on average 1 in 5 people who didn’t attend the event chose not too because of how busy the event was. However, due to this insight Noel Leeming is giving its customers a way to escape the crowds by introducing an innovative VIP area where event-goers can relax on couches, sip on refreshments and grab a bite to eat while a ShopBot does the hard work for them.
Noel Leeming General Manager of Marketing, Maryanne Smith, says the ShopBot will add an exciting new dimension to customers’ Massive Sellout experience.
“The research from last year showed that more people might be encouraged to come along to the event if they felt like they weren’t in such a busy space. The idea behind the ShopBot and VIP area was to add value to customer’s Massive Sellout experience and give those customers who may find the crowds too much an alternate and fun way to shop.”
According to Noel Leeming, this VIP experience with the ShopBots were first in first served, through the gates, so you had to be quick to get in. After looking at some pictures of the event it does seem like a pretty cool way to utilise technology for customer convenience. Just that the people who missed out might’ve been a tad jealous at how they had to walk around to shop instead of sitting on a couch with a fizzy.
I would like to see Noel Leeming bring this technology to its stores in the future as well as for bigger events like the Massive Sell-Out.
