SHOWPLACE, the multi-tenant showroom building at the heart of the High Point Market announced that it is unveiling a smart phone shopping app this Market designed to revolutionize the buyer experience. It is the first Market building ever to offer the technology.
The app, called SHOWPLACE Shopper, enables buyers to scan Quick Response (QR) codes assigned to products as they shop SHOWPLACE showrooms—capturing information about the products and images of items that interest them on their smart phones. Major exhibitors participating in the beta test of the application, which will be available for free download inside the building’s lobby during Market, include American Leather, Copeland, Revco, Elements, Surya, Bramble & Co., and BKind3.
“Our goal is to create a shopping experience for buyers that is unmatched anywhere else at Market,” says Lisa Shankle, general manager of SHOWPLACE properties. “We believe this technology, which will be rolled out throughout the building next Spring, will be of tremendous benefit to the buyers who shop here, as well as our exhibitors.”
“The introduction of this technology is really a game-changing move for SHOWPLACE, and an historic moment for the Market itself, due to the app’s ability to connect buyers and sellers faster and more efficiently,” says Eric Burg, president and chief executive of Applerock, one of the fastest-growing tradeshow companies in the nation.
“Everyone’s time has become so compressed at Market, and buyers are the most time-challenged of all because they have to cover millions of square feet of showrooms in just a few days,” he says. “They have to gather as much information as possible in order to be able to make informed purchasing decisions. They are working long days, in many cases reviewing thousands of products, and after Market, they have to be able to remember what they liked and didn’t like. Using this app, they will be able to collect a great deal of information quickly, share that information with other members of their merchandising teams if necessary, and contact salespeople with their order, or requests for further details about an item via email after they’ve left a showroom. This app is a premiere example of permission-based marketing, which is unquestionably the way we’re moving, and SHOWPLACE and its exhibitors are at the forefront.”
Indeed, the new app supplies the building’s participating exhibitors with vital information in an unprecedented way, allowing them to measure customer behavior inside their showrooms and to identify which products are most popular, or show the most promise. Not surprisingly, the building’s exhibitors are effusive about the potential.
“We think the Showplace Shopper App is a brilliant idea,” relates Greg O’Neal, vice president of product development and marketing at Revco International, a SHOWPLACE exhibitor celebrating its tenth anniversary this Market. “At Revco, we embrace technology and constantly search for more efficient ways to communicate information to buyers and key accounts. Adopting new technologies is not just vital for our industry today; it’s a soon-to-be required norm.
“As one of the younger manufacturers in the business, one of the reasons we were attracted to SHOWPLACE was that the building, both internally and externally seemed to mimic what we represent within our own organization,” O’Neal relates. “We try to promote smart and efficient business, while continuing to focus on the future of our products and industry. The same is true for SHOWPLACE. It’s always been obviously futuristic on the outside; the introduction of the SHOWPLACE Shopper App makes it officially the most futuristic facility on the High Point Market campus on the inside as well.”
“I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the number of ‘smart tags’ showing up in print media lately, and the number of leading companies that are picking up on them,” says Carl Gustafson, principle of Bkind3. “So when I learned there was an opportunity to use a QR code on our products in SHOWPLACE, I decided to embrace it immediately. I believe this is the new way that customers are going to shop. They are seeking information and they want to be engaged.”
“Technology like this is really nothing more than automating some of the basic things that we do as manufacturers and retailers everyday,” remarks Satya Tiwari, president of Surya. “It’s just that now we can do it at lightening speed. That makes us more productive and enables us to enhance our business and take it to the next level. It also makes it more exciting for us, and offers our customers a better shopping experience. We think that this is a great step for SHOWPLACE. The Market model has changed, and the building that provides buyers with the most productive experience will undoubtedly be the most attractive building to exhibitors in the future.”
ABOUT SHOWPLACE, SHOWPLACE, SHOWPLACE WEST and Hamilton Properties, collectively represent nearly one million square feet of the High Point Market: The World’s Home for Home Furnishings. The iconic multi-tenant buildings are operated by Charlotte-based Lincoln Harris, one of North Carolina’s most accomplished full-service real estate companies.
For more information about SHOWPLACE, SHOWPLACE West or Hamilton Properties, call (336) 886-4700 or visit www.showplace-highpoint.com.