Text me in St. Louis

Customer-facing in-store technology—the kind that’s designed to make the shopper’s experience faster or better—has a checkered past.

Sometimes it goes mainstream, as in the case of self-checkout or scannable frequent shopper cards. Sometimes, the ideas go nowhere. (Remember the “Digital Receipt,” or Target’s effort to promote the use of electronic coupons through their credit cards embedded with computer chips? Neither caught on.)

The latest venture in the shopper technology arena is reaching out for consumer acceptance in a St. Louis-area hardware store. The service, from St. Louis-based technology company Aisle411, is off to what the owner of the four-unit Ace dealer describes as a successful start.

Aisle411 is a voice-recognition and text messaging service designed to help shoppers find products on store shelves through their mobile phones. It launched Aug. 18 at Ace Hardware in Des Peres, Mo., one of four stores owned by Rick Baalmann, a former board member for the Oak Brook, Ill.-based Ace Hardware co-op.

“So far it’s working very well,” Baalmann told Home Channel News. “We haven’t had a lot of issues. Like any new technology, we’ll always be refining it.”

Aisle411 is described by its makers as a “voice recognition product location service.” It works like this: Customers dial a toll-free number on their mobile phone (877-AISLE411). They state their location, the store and then ask for the item. Within seconds, according to the technology company, the shopper receives a text message with the location of the item—“aisle 24,” for instance.

And while serving up directions, the service can also deliver coupons to customers when they need them most, when they’re shopping or about to shop.

Aisle411’s research shows that nearly 84% of shoppers have some difficulty finding products on store shelves—especially at hardware, sporting goods and big-box stores. More than 67% of shoppers say they would use this free service, especially women aged 31 to 40.

Another stat: More than 22% of shoppers give up while looking for hard-to-find items in a store.

Baalmann is a big believer in staff interaction with customers and feels his stores do a great job in that area of customer service. But for shoppers who like their phones, the system represents another way to reach them.

“Whether they’re at home or coming to the store, or actually in the store—for any one of those, it’s good for the consumer,” Baalmann added.