店内手机追踪营销：商家喜欢顾客恨

    尽管零售业广告的最新创新成果让企业界惊喜不已，但消费者并不十分买账。现在出现了一种服务于“全方位渠道”零售商的新技术——所谓的“全方位渠道”指的是把实体零售店与在线分析结合在一起。它意味着消费者一迈进商家的门槛，商家就要连接到消费者的智能手机。而消费者对这种做法很警惕。

    根据消费者意见反馈公司OpinionLab的数据，77%的受访者认为无法接受商家在店内追踪自己的手机，81%的受访者不信任零售商会保护个人数据的隐私和安全。塔吉特百货（Target）不幸“中枪”了——受访者表示他们更信任本地商店追踪自己的购物数据，而不信任大牌零售商。

    要想在消费者真正付账之前统计出究竟有多少人在店里购物，这种事即使是放在以前，在技术上也并非不能实现。但那时，消费者必须用信用卡买东西，或是报出电子邮件地址和会员卡。但是归功于现在的地理栅栏技术，加上Wi-Fi、蓝牙和已经广泛普及的智能手机，如今商家已经可以通过消费者的智能手机信号定位消费者的位置，针对他们进行营销。这项技术的目标是，当一个顾客走进一家门店时，他的手机上会收到一条推送消息，根据他的个人情况送上量身定制的广告。

    现在已经有好几家创业公司正在开发这项技术，其中包括分析门店客流量的Nomi公司，它迄今已经募集了1300美元的风投资金。此外还有已经募集到2360万美元的Euclid公司和已经募集到2940万美元的RetailNext公司。去年秋天，就连苹果公司（Apple）也发布了自己的iBeacon店内追踪系统，加入了这个领域的争夺。iBeacon最初主要用在苹果自己的专卖店里，但是现在第三方零售商也可以使用它。深受消费者推崇的创业公司Shopkick每年都能带动几亿美元的销售额，现在它也推出了一个名叫shopBeacon的基于地理位置的应用。梅西百货（Macy’s）是第一家部署这款应用的零售连锁店。

    市场专家们认为这项技术并不具有侵犯性，因为它是选择性加入的。零售商要想对消费者推送广告，首先要获得消费者的允许，尤其是如果通过零售商的APP推送的话。一般来说，零售商都会发送店内短信鼓励顾客下载自己的APP，但是沃尔格林（Walgreens）、科尔斯（Kohls）、星巴克（Starbucks）等零售商也各自都有大受消费者欢迎的APP。

    呼吁隐私保护的人士把这种店内追踪技术比作早些年的电子邮件营销，因为那时候许多商家也是未经用户同意就买卖用户的邮箱地址。2003年，美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）通过了《反垃圾邮件法案》，规定商家必须提供一个让消费者可以取消订阅的方法，而且还要提供发信人的真实地址。另外，这项法案还禁止通过交易等手段收集电子邮箱地址。

    今天的移动营销和店内追踪技术仍然很年轻，但监管者们或许可以加以关注、同时出台一些基本规定来保护消费者的隐私。上个月，美国联邦贸易委员会专门就此举办了一次研讨会，行业领袖和隐私保护倡议人士们对选择性加入办法给出了各自的观点。

    iBeacon和其它店内追踪软件遭到冷遇的一个原因正是由于“追踪”这个词儿。如果你问任何人“你愿意在踏进一家商店后的每一步都被人追踪吗？”估计没有人会答“愿意”。但我们每天使用电脑上网时，这种事都在发生。营销人员、广告商和电商网站会利用浏览器的cookies追踪我们的上网足迹，然后根据我们的浏览记录向我们打广告。虽然隐私保护人士一直锲而不舍地围绕cookies发声，但互联网用户们似乎并不以为意。

    对于支持店内追踪的人来说，一个经典的理由就是，消费者愿意为了方便或省钱而牺牲一点点的隐私。事实也证明了这一点。在OpinionLab公司的调查中，61%的受访者表示如果他们加入的话，希望商家能给予直接的价格折扣作为补偿。另有53%的受访者希望加入后能得到免费产品。但也有高达35%的人表示，他们非常讨厌店内追踪这种做法，无论商家出什么招术，也不能吸引他们加入。

    这次调查总体上显示了店内追踪技术所面临的挑战：63%的受访者表示不会选择加入店内追踪，即便是在他们喜欢的零售店里也不行。所以，尽管零售商们对这项技术很热衷，但是还得给消费者好好做做工作。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    Despite excitement from the business world, consumers aren't keen on the latest innovations in retail advertising. A whole new category of technology has sprung up to serve "omnichannel" retailers, who combine online analytics with brick-and-mortar sales. They do that by connecting to a consumer's smartphone while they're in the store. And consumers are wary.

    According to a survey of 1,042 consumers conducted by consumer feedback companyOpinionLab, 77% of respondents find in-store tracking unacceptable, and 81% said they don't trust retailers to keep data private and secure. Blame Target for that one. (Respondents said they have more trust in local stores tracking their shopping data than mass-market retailers.)

    Prior to now, it wasn't technologically possible to find out much about consumers in stores until they actually bought something. And even then, they had to buy with a credit card, offer their email address, or use a loyalty account to be identified. But now, thanks to geofencing technology, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ubiquitous smartphones, marketers are able to track and market to customers by identifying the customer's smartphone signals. The goal is to have a customer walk into a department store and get a push notification on his or her phone with a personalized offer.

    Startups building out the technology include Nomi, which offers stores analytics on foot traffic and has raised $13 million in venture funding, Euclid which has raised $23.6 million, andRetailNext which has raised $29.4 million. The category was further validated last fall, when Apple (AAPL) revealed iBeacon, its own version of an in-store tracking system. iBeacon rolled out in Apple stores first, but is now available for third-party retailers to use. Shopkick, a consumer rewards startup which drives hundreds of millions of sales each year, now offers a location-based product called shopBeacon. Macy's (M) was the first store to deploy it.

    Marketing pros argue the technology is not invasive because it's opt-in. Consumers must give permission for any company to market to them based on their location, typically through the retailer's app. Retailers use in-store messaging to encourage visitors to download their app, although plenty of retailers, like Walgreens (WAG), Kohls (KSS), and Starbucks (SBUX), have fairly popular apps.

    Privacy advocates compare in-store tracking to the early days of email marketing, where marketers could buy and sell email addresses without getting permission from the recipients. In 2003, the FTC adopted the CAN-SPAM act, which required marketers to include a way to unsubscribe and a physical address of the publisher. It also banned harvesting email addresses.

    Mobile marketing, and in-store tracking, is still very young, but regulators may take notice and implement some ground rules to protect consumers' privacy. Last month, the FTC held a seminar on the topic, where industry leaders and privacy advocates offered arguments for and against opt-in laws.

    Part of the problem with iBeacon and its brethren is the word "tracking." No one would answer "yes" to the question, "Do you like having your every move tracked whenever you enter a store?" And yet, that's what happens to us as we browse the web every day. Marketers, publishers, and e-commerce sites use cookies to follow us around the web and serve us ads based on our browsing histories. Cookies have always been a point of contention with privacy wonks, but Internet users are generally okay with it.

    The classic argument in favor of tracking, be it virtual or in-store, is that consumers are willing to give up a bit of their privacy in exchange for convenience or savings. That's the case here, too. In the OpinionLab study, 61% of respondents said they expect to be directly compensated with price discounts for their participation. Another 53% said they expected free products. Still, a whopping 35% said they detested the practice so much that there's nothing a store could do to motivate them to opt in.

    The overall survey shows challenges for these technologies: 63% of those surveyed said they would not opt in to be tracked, even at their favorite stores. So, while retailers buy it, consumers still need to be sold.