Dixons Carphone chief marketing officer Julian Diment argues technology should not be allowed to overtake human interactions when being introduced in-store.
Speaking at the Retail Week Tech & Ecomm conference, Diment explained that one of the mistakes Carphone Warehouse made when introducing its Pin Point technology into stores two years ago was forgetting the human element.
He said: “What we forgot was at the end of the day it is still a human interaction. The technology facilitates that and should not overtake it.”
Carphone Warehouse sales staff were initially rated by input data gathered from the tablets used for Pin Point, but it was soon decided they should be judged by secret shoppers in order to make sure the human interactions were not lost.
Diment revealed Pin Point had been a great success both in terms of sales and profit margins.
In the last 12 months over 2m customers have experienced a Pin Point journey and during the period there has been a 6% increase in conversion and a 5% uplifit in margins.
Diment added: “We believe it really cements the value of bricks and mortar it brings that theatre back to the stores.
“It captures all the experiences whether we sell at the end of it or not. It has given us a more rounded understanding of the business. “
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