Analysis [ Thomas ]

[ THOMAS ] 

Target corporation has incorporated the use of information systems for many years now and have greatly benefited from it. Information systems provided target the ability to expand upon their services, and improve the utilization of their assets & infrastructure, with the goal of maximizing sales and minimizing costs. 

One of the specific information systems the team analyzes is target pick up software that customers use on their mobile devices and the target staff use on their Zebra devices. As mentioned previously these devices allow target staff to conduct a wide variety of business processes and communications from the in store mobile device. In particular this device allows target staff to conduct its processes for the pick up app and provide this service of delivery of target's products to from its stores to the customers car. A problem that was identified during our analysis is the occasional customer who has not enabled location tracking services within the target pick up app.

 

This is a problem because it creates delays and results in poor customer experiences. The lack of the proper information being available to target at the appropriate time creates this problem in which the delivery time is significantly delayed because of not having the geolocation services enabled. The events take place as such; customers place orders when they have already arrived at the store's designated pick up spot in the parking lot. This significantly slows down delivery times because the customer will have indicated that they have arrived and allocated the spot number they are in, but the target staff has not yet collected all the items for the order, thus delaying the delivery time. This problem also arises when the customer places the order and then makes their way to the store without any geolocating information being shared with the local target that they are placing the order from. This slows down the delivery time as well because target does not receive appropriate, real time information on the customers location to determine whether or not they need to prioritize this order.  

To prevent this information silo, the user should be prompted to opt into geolocation services each time going to order, or as an alternative a time and date form for the user to input. The database will have to implement data type settings so the target can ensure the correct information. Based on the customers manual input of x amount of minutes, and that will be sent back to the customer as a notification of order confirmation. Given that the target's goal is to deliver the order to the customer within  3 minutes, and it will take several minutes for the order to be processed, there is a minimum of 15-20 minutes or so on all or most orders. This would allow the target staff to prioritize appropriately by knowing the time frame of delivery is to be ready. Without this information the timeframe could be anywhere from 2-20 minutes so it makes it difficult to prioritize orders.

 

 

Beacon technology in store brings value to customer but has limitations. Potential Solutions recommended.

 The other information system researched is target's beacon technology and the integration of it with social media. Target has been able to build and install the beacon technology within a number of stores throughout the country. The power that this gives target is to engage with the customer, and target has implemented a great tool giving power to the customers and increasing their experience. For example if the user is at a local target with the beacon present, they will receive a relevant ad based on their recent activity on platforms like Pinterest, Instagram & TikTok. As well as based on information of the customers location. The beacon technology also brings the ability for the user to use an in store digital interactive map. When the user enables their location sharing, they will have the power of the digital map to input  items they need and will act as a gps to guide the customer through the store, along their shopping journey user's will receive up to 2 pop up notifications based on their location in the store and the items near them. The beacon technology however has been under a bit of fire lately, users suggesting that the ads they are receiving are totally irrelevant. Improving the ad revleancy level is needed. The image below shows the app screen of a customer looking at headphones and given an add for the baby section. This may or may not be relevant, but perhaps there is a disconnect with the relationship of what the customer is shopping for and the content send to the customer.  

A possible ad could be a new release that the user may enjoy. Based on relevant information, for example if the user recently searched for shoes online, the app and in store beacons can send an update to the user, shining light on something the user was looking for based on social media search history. The ad might even be a video from their social media campaign "target run". Essentially a target haul or, an influencer on social media who shares their experience with their audience and new users by using hashtags in order to make it easy to be found. Further below, is the full line up of capabilities that the app and in store beacon can bring as value to the customer.

 

The problems that were discovered was the lack of ability for the information system to really know for certain which key information is most relevant to the user in order to provide the best. This, along with target's strategy to only send a maximum of 2 ads per store visit, limits the opportunities for relevant information to be shared with the user, and only allows a couple of opportunities to "get it right" in order to successfully convert those ads into sales /transactions.

 

A possible solution is to use search history as a tool to determine the ad for the customer. This may be appealing to both the emotional and rational side of the customer, because they are likely to search for various kinds of things on social media. Pinterest or certain things, and TikTok for others or even similar. The level of relevancy if delivered would be increased because it would have been a direct link to its method. For instance if the target were to to use data collected in store more specifically. For example if a customer recently searched up a meal or dish, the technology could send an alert to the customer for ingredients of the food recipe. The system can use Artificial intelligence to create a shopping list for the dish that was searched. For example if a customer searches for banana bread the beacon could alert the customer with the displayed shopping cart and location of items in the store. Then they can opt into the shopping experience, decline, or change what it is they want if not that. This will bring even more power to the customer while at the same time, if the alert is irrelevant, the user can still easily transition into their needs.