Tagged with 'future of retail'

The Cisco Store at Cisco Live was grander than ever this year – we're talking a giant leap to 7,500 square feet of eye-catching technology and merchandise. A real crowd magnet, the store hosted over half of the 23,000 attendees at the whole show. 519 lucky people snagged a spot on one of our 26 Cisco Store Tech Lab tours to learn how we power a real retail environment with Cisco and partner technology. Plus, retail proved to be very much alive and well: merchandise sales were up 34% from last year, showing that the love for the Cisco brand is stronger than ever.

The technology stack behind our Cisco Live Amsterdam store went on a global adventure, landing in Las Vegas to energize the Cisco Store there. We ran the whole show on a full Meraki stack, featuring the latest gear like the MS130 switches, access points, nifty sensors, handy buttons, and even power monitoring sensors. Plus, we teamed up again with some stellar partners like EVERYANGLE, VusionGroup, CAE Labs, Wipro VisionEDGE, Webex Connect, and more to amp up the experience. 

Visitors were especially wowed by VusionGroup’s Captana, which alerts staff when items are out of stock as well as checks for merchandise planogram compliance.  

EVERYANGLE also turned heads with its in-store conversion rate generation for our brick-and-mortar spaces. Attendees got the inside scoop by touring with the pros who run the Cisco Store, getting a firsthand look at how we make retail magic happen.

Like Amsterdam, we also deployed 15 Meraki MT40 smart power controllers throughout the store to baseline our power consumption during the show with the help of CAE Labs’ WiserWatts platform. We plan to schedule our power at both of next year’s shows to compare our energy and cost savings: after baselining and scheduling power at our San Jose store, we have reduced our energy consumption by 66%, helping us fulfill our core principle of sustainability.

Can’t wait to see it for yourself? Check out our Cisco Store Tech Lab Tour video to dive into the action from wherever you are!

Along the way, tour attendees could experience how the Cisco Store powers an inclusive future for all: our donation tower was once again set up at the entrance of the store. Every token dropped into the tower represented a $1 donation to organizations such as Green Our Planet, Wine to Water, and Replate, totaling up to $1,207 by the end of the show.  

The Cisco Store unveiled an array of new merchandise, thoughtfully crafted by Cisco’s internal creative agency, The Hatch, presenting the brand in an innovative and sophisticated manner. In light of the robust partnership between Cisco and McLaren, and with the notable presence of McLaren CEO Zak Brown and racing driver Oscar Piastri participating in the keynote Q&A, the store introduced a new line of Cisco | McLaren products. These items, aligning with the partnership’s prominence in the Cisco Showcase, were met with overwhelming demand (nearly selling out), underscoring the partnership’s resonance with not only Cisco but also with our customers and partners.  

Following the fervor of the first day’s keynote, the Cisco Store launched a limited-edition Cisco | McLaren hoodie, which was met with such enthusiasm that it sold out on the same day. 

Concurrently, AI was a prevalent theme at the event, with Cisco’s AI hub being a focal point on the show floor and the campaign video being featured prominently in the keynote. To complement this, the Cisco Store introduced merchandise that allowed attendees to own a piece of Cisco’s new AI campaign featuring the campaign artwork.  

Furthermore, the acquisition of Splunk, a significant topic of discussion and a notable presence at Cisco Live, marked one of the largest transactions in the technology sector’s history. To commemorate this milestone, the Cisco Store offered exclusive merchandise as part of the “It’s a new day” campaign, allowing attendees to celebrate this pivotal moment alongside Cisco.  

In addition, the Cisco Store offered an exclusive opportunity for attendees to personalize their Cisco apparel with unique Cisco Live patches. This bespoke experience was facilitated by the innovative use of Webex Connect, which streamlined the customization process. Attendees were invited to scan a QR code, which prompted them to select their preferred item for personalization and their desired patch and specify its placement. This allowed for a seamless drop-off experience, with real-time notifications updating them on the progress of their garment’s construction and alerting them when their item was ready for collection. This personalized touch enhanced the attendee experience and showcased Cisco’s technology integration in creating a memorable retail interaction. You can witness The Patch Station in action on the Cisco Store Tech Lab YouTube channel!

The Cisco Store set up a video feedback station called Fanvoice in a Box, powered by our technology partner Fanvoice, allowing store visitors to leave valuable merchandise and technology feedback for our team.  

Our visitors particularly loved being able to see real-world applications of technology that promise to drive the future of retail forward. And some merchandise requests? More McLaren gear.  

Interested in demonstrating your technology? Please reach out to set up an activation with us!

If you would like to bring your customers through the Cisco Store Tech Lab as a stop on your CXC Tour, you can also schedule your visit now – we'll have the Tech Lab personalized just for you!  

If you’ve ever visited the Cisco Store Tech Lab in San Jose, California, you’ve probably seen how seamlessly Cisco and our partners’ retail technology is integrated into the store. Now, how do we showcase that technology at our travel stores? Learn about our efficient set-up process at our most recent show, Cisco Live EMEA 2024, held in Amsterdam from February 5-9. 

Everything starts with the floor plan of the booth at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center. Once we have that, I’ll start mapping out where all the store technology needs to go: we work with our partners to decide where to place their solutions to ensure they can work optimally. 

For instance, we met with EVERYANGLE to determine what areas we want to monitor for footfall analytics, queue counting, and engagement zones. Cameras had to be placed in strategic locations to give us full coverage of the store. 

Cogniac helped us figure out where to place our Meraki MV63 camera to have a clear view of specific T-shirts that were used in a demo in conjunction with Wipro VisionEDGE. When a shirt is picked up off the rack, the MV63 relays that information to Cogniac, and then Wipro VisionEDGE receives a trigger alert to change the screen next to the shirt to educate the customer about the product and explain how our products empower an inclusive future for all.  

Before we ship out to Amsterdam, I’ll set up the technology we’re taking in a lab in San Jose to test that everything is functional. I had our equipment road-tested and packed into just three crates by mid-December (a month and a half before the show), and JLL Logistics helped us ship it all over to Amsterdam.  

A few days before the start of Cisco Live, JLL delivered the crates to our booth at the RAI, and our team started unpacking and deploying the equipment. Since we had the map ready, placing everything where it needed to go was seamless. I gave the network team the placement of the switches, cameras, smart fitting rooms, and so on beforehand so they could run the proper electrical lines through the booth, and all we had to do once we arrived was plug everything in.

This is the first year we’re baselining the store’s power consumption, both at the San Jose store and at all our travel stores, with the help of CAE Labs’ WiserWatts. We plan to schedule our power at next year’s shows to compare energy and cost savings. It took a bit to figure out how to route the power for all the technology through the Meraki MT40s (smart power controllers that monitor and remotely control power). We deployed twelve MT40s for full coverage of the booth, and it took a few trips to the electronics store to get the right adapters, but now that we’ve done it once, it will be a lot easier globally. After that, Fidel (the store’s Merchandising Project Manager) helps us place all our Meraki cameras. Everything is online by the Saturday before the show starts, and then we do any last-minute configuring and deploying our digital signage playlists.

The technology makes it a lot easier for our store associates in their day-to-day functions. Meraki smart buttons were set up to allow the associates to change our digital signage (for instance, changing the screens to indicate that the store was closed) without requiring backend access. Our travel stores utilize temporary store associates, so the process of restocking merchandise was similarly simplified: all they had to do was input the product’s ID, and the corresponding electronic shelf label would flash in the back of house to indicate the item’s location.  

Now that the travel store and tech lab are set up, I review the tour schedule with Kaleigh (the Cisco Store and Tech Lab’s Program Manager) to make sure the flow of the tours is fluid. We had a tour scheduled for the Cisco Champions the day before the show started, so our rehearsals had to be completed in advance.

We’d set up what we like to call the Triforce of Wisdom, or our triangular tech wall, to display our technology to visitors. Fidel, Courtney (our Marketing Lead), and Anjana (our Product Marketing Specialist) had wired up the products, such as the Meraki MT40, VusionGroup’s SESimagotag electronic shelf labels, and so forth beforehand so visitors could see the technology in-person. Meraki just launched their new MV13 and MV33 smart cameras a few days ago, and tour attendees had the opportunity to gain a sneak peek into those products during the show.  

And that’s it! Our set-up process has been streamlined in a way that allows our small team to have things up and running in a matter of a few days.

To learn more about the Cisco Store Tech Lab, come visit us in San Jose, California, or catch us at Cisco Live US in June. If you were able to stop by the store at Cisco Live EMEA, thanks for saying hello! Hope to see you next year.  

Understanding how to best serve customers is a primary focus for retailers. However, gaining this understanding can be complex. Retailers need to know what their customers are buying, when they’re buying it, and their feelings while shopping. Stationing staff members in the store to gauge customer reactions is not an efficient solution. This is where Meraki and EVERYANGLE come into play, enhancing the customer-focused daily operations of the Cisco Store.  

The MV12 and MV63 are directional cameras. The indoor MV12 offers a choice of a wide or narrow Field of View (FoV) and provides intelligent object and motion detection, analytics, and easy operation via the Meraki dashboard. The outdoor MV63 monitors the entrances and exits of the store.  

Meanwhile, the MV32 and MV93 are 360° fish-eye cameras. The indoor MV32 combines an immersive de-warped FoV with intelligent object detection and streamlined operation via the Meraki dashboard, in addition to addressing major security vulnerabilities. The outdoor MV93 offers panoramic wide area coverage, enhancing surveillance capabilities even in low light.  

The data from these Meraki cameras is utilized by EVERYANGLE in the Cisco Store in various ways.  

A challenge for physical stores is obtaining metrics comparable to online stores, making it difficult to tailor the retail experience effectively. EVERYANGLE’s technology levels the playing field for physical retailers.

EVERYANGLE uses data from the directional cameras MV12 and MV63 to help the Cisco Store better understand its visitors. The Next Generation Footfall App breaks down customer genders and ages, monitors their satisfaction levels post-visit, and tracks the time spent in various store sections. For example, data from a Cisco Live event revealed a 50:50 male to female customer ratio, contrary to the expected 60:40, leading to adjustments in the Store’s product range.  

EVERYANGLE determines purchase conversion rates at physical locations by analyzing integrated sales data and foot traffic. Their machine learning and AI algorithms provide 95% accurate customer insights. Staff members are automatically excluded from these insights, ensuring data accuracy.

EVERYANGLE’s True Customer Identification accurately distinguishes genuine shoppers from non-customers. This empowers retailers with precise customer data, crucial for targeted strategies and store optimization, ensuring decisions reflect real customer activity.  

The Cisco Store can thus easily gauge customer demographics, engagement, and group dynamics without a heavy in-store staff presence, adjusting displays and marketing tactics accordingly. Fortunately, we have seen an increase in positive sentiment from when customers enter the Cisco Store to when they exit!  

This data is used to maintain smooth store operations and continuously improve performance. The fish-eye cameras MV32 and MV93 are used to monitor the checkout lines: a threshold on the queue count allows for staff adjustment at checkouts as needed. If people spend a comparatively longer time at certain stations, we can begin to understand if that longer dwell time means more sales of those specific products.

Meraki’s people detection capabilities, integrated with EVERYANGLE, help the Cisco Store maintain top-notch security. Cameras, integrated with the point of sale (POS) system, anonymously track high-value purchases and returns, aiding in fraud prevention.

Meraki and EVERYANGLE enable the Cisco Store to better understand its customers and serve them effectively, prioritizing their security and privacy. The analytics and dashboards facilitate customer service improvement, ensuring customers leave with a positive shopping experience.  

The National Retail Federation (NRF) just hosted its 2024 show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City over the MLK long weekend. Kaleigh Bisconti and Brian Domine from the Cisco Store and Cisco Store Tech Lab team share their insights into the technology they experienced and where they see the future of retail heading. 

Kaleigh: I’m Kaleigh Bisconti – I oversee the Cisco Store and Cisco Store Tech Lab program, which includes the travel stores, physical stores, and our online stores.  

Brian: I’m Brian Domine – I run all the technology deployments in the Cisco Store through the Cisco Store Tech Lab, both at the physical locations and at our travel stores.  

Kaleigh: There was a space called the Innovation Lab that displayed up-and-coming technology solutions. The Tech Lab’s partner EVERYANGLE was there: EVERYANGLE is responsible for giving us in-store metrics, such as customer demographics, sentiment, and purchase conversion rate, that you would previously only be able to get from online stores. 
Typeface was also a cool find. You can input your company’s brand guidelines and they leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to generate content in accordance with those guidelines. They can also cater the content they generate towards specific target markets. For example, if a car manufacturer wanted to adjust their content by geographic region, Typeface could do that for them. I could see the Cisco Store implementing this kind of technology in the future: Typeface could help create content for specific platforms.  

Brian: There were multiple companies such as Proto and ARHT with spaces containing life-sized holograms of a person. You could have two-way live interactions with the holograms, which was pretty cool.  

Kaleigh: From a retailer’s point of view, there were a lot of electronic shelf label (ESL) solutions that would make store operations more streamlined. They can be quickly updated with price or product changes, and you can even alter the currency according to which country you’re in.   

Brian: Lots of self-checkout kiosks with larger, more interactive screens than just a small tablet.  

Kaleigh: A big problem is workforce optimization. Retailers need to streamline the efficiency of sales associates on the floor in physical stores: for example, finding a way to automate the retrieval of products at the back of house. With workforce shortages, solving this problem is especially important. 

Brian: The Cisco Store utilizes Webex Connect to quickly answer customers’ questions and forward them to live agents if they need further assistance. Meraki cameras placed throughout the store help track customer demographics and sentiment and detect any theft or fraudulent purchases. These are just a couple of examples of how we try to solve the problems Kaleigh mentioned.  

Kaleigh: Having a seamless experience is one of the most important aspects in a retail environment. If a product is available in a physical store, it should be available online (and vice versa). At the very least, a customer should be able to quickly locate items in a physical store or get rapid assistance finding those items and/or shipping them home or to the store itself. There should be a self-checkout option that moves quickly too.  
One of the biggest plus points of a physical location is that a customer should be able to have a fresh experience there compared to the online offerings. This means having a more engaging store experience through interesting attractions such as in-store customization options.  

Brian: On the note of better engagement in-store, Webex demonstrated their customer communication platform, Webex Connect, through a mobile order coffee bar experience called Café Cisco at NRF. Customers could scan a QR code to begin the process and then quickly place their coffee orders by interacting with Webex Connect on their native messaging client. The baristas in turn could interact with the customers and keep them updated on their orders.  

The possibilities of Webex Connect don’t stop there. The concept behind Café Cisco can be translated into other experiences as well, including our upcoming in-store customization experience which will launch at Cisco Live Vegas later this year.  

Kaleigh: Meta displayed its Meta Quest products at the Innovation Lab, showcasing mixed-reality environments for multitasking at the workplace.  

Brian: There weren’t a ton of other AR experiences we saw, but spatial computing will become more of a topic of discussion once the Apple Vision Pro is released. 

Kaleigh: I see workforce optimization being tackled in the next few years. Electronic shelf labels (ESLs) will become a lot more prevalent, especially in the US. I hope we’ll be seeing more RFID self-checkout as well; it’s much more common in Asia and only a few stores in the US have implemented it so far. I also think we’ll see more integration in product searchability between online and physical stores.  
Understanding in-store audiences on a deeper level will be even more important in the coming years to make sure that physical stores stay efficient and worth the time and staffing power required to keep them running. As we mentioned before, Meraki cameras and Everyangle do a good job of getting us those physical store analytics at the Cisco Store.  
I think the retail industry will also be trying to develop and integrate more technological solutions that gather information about their customers while still maintaining their privacy. Shopping experiences may start becoming more personalized and stores may start creating more immersive experiences in their physical locations: for example, a digital screen changing based on who the visitor is. These changes will be interesting to track over the next few years for sure.  
If you had the chance to join us this year at NRF, thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you next year.