What If?

Jennifer Polanz

What if you could employ a device that spoke to the iPhones in the hands of your customers, telling them about your offer for the day, growing information for specific segments or just reminding customers of your rewards program, all while tracking valuable customer information (like where they visit in the store).

What if you could be part of an app that creates a social community around plants and could direct potential customers right to your store?

What if your customers could check out super fast without reaching for their wallets?

What if I told you all of this is already happening?

iBeacon
What is it? Of course, the first thing you see there is the lower-case i, which can only mean one thing: Apple. This beacon is the brainchild of Apple and is being employed in a variety of ways. Basically, it’s a small wireless transmitter that will communicate with an iPhone that has a specific app loaded. That could be in the form of an offer (roses are on sale for $19.99!) or information (visit aisle 7 for more on caring for roses!). Museums and cities are using them to push information on self-guided tours and some cities are using them in conjunction with local businesses to tell visitors more about the business as they pass by. The beacons can transmit from a couple of inches up to 180 ft. Of course, this technology is specifically for iPhones, but Android beacons are coming around.

The benefits: Sunrise Marketing owner Kurt Fromherz was an early adopter of the technology, helping some of his retail and other clients implement it. He stresses the trackability factor of the iBeacons—in other words, you can get solid data on where customers are going in the store by how often the iBeacons communicate. That can help with store setup, switching out displays and dumping poorly performing product lines.

The key: Getting customers to download the app. Once they do that, they’ve opted in to all the messages you’re going to send them throughout the store.

GrowIt
What is it? Facebook has been a popular place for gardening information, but the rest of the news feed gets in the way (between Super Bowl commercial reviews, cat videos and the odd survey revealing your celebrity boyfriend). The GrowIt app is the social media solution to creating a community around plants—and the best part is, it’s not just for avid gardeners. It’s for everyone, from novice to your grandma who’s been gardening for 50 years. Created by young entrepreneurs (and Millennials) Seth Reed and Mason Day, the app allows users to create a profile and upload photos of plants. The user can label the plant photo or someone else in the community can jump in and help them out if they don’t know what it is.

The benefits: There are a couple here. The app takes into account the location of the user via the phone’s GPS, so he/she will only see photos from those in their immediate area (meaning no requests for plants that don’t grow there). Retailers can create profiles as well, with clickable phone numbers and addresses. A user can click on the retailer’s address and get directions to the store or click on the phone number and call immediately. The app just launched in the Google Play store, too, for Android users.

The key: Adoption by both garden retailers and customers. The more the better on both sides.

Apple Pay
What is it? This has the potential to be the main way people will be paying for products in the years to come. In October, Apple launched the new contactless payment system, which requires either model of iPhone 6 or the iPhone Watch. Some iPads can use it for online, but not in-store. It works by the customer entering their credit card information into the Passbook. When it comes time to pay, they hold their phone toward the contactless reader with their thumb down on the Touch ID on the phone. A vibration and beep lets the customer know the payment went through.

The benefits: Significantly faster checkout. No signing or pressing buttons. According to a recent Forbes.com article, Whole Foods has seen a 400% increase in touchless mobile payments since the launch in October. And Panera Bread says 80% of its touchless mobile payments are Apple Pay.

The key: According to Sam Kirkland, national accounts manager for Epicor, this will be something garden retailers will need to watch for 2015 and early 2016. The adoption will go quickly and customers may begin to expect this at checkout. Retailers should get with their point-of-sale company rep to find out what hardware they’ll need to accept Apple Pay.

More New Tech
This is by no means a complete list, as plant-related apps and websites are coming out consistently. But here are a few we can tell you about this month:

• Plantbid: An online tool for landscapers to locate and buy their whole plant list at one time from growers who provide their complete availabilities. Plantbid has the industry’s largest online database of 250-plus nurseries nationwide. Based on a buyer’s job site location, Plantbid digs through the nursery data and matches a plant list with several purchasing options. Along with an advanced and quick-search capability, it also features a way to request a photo of plant material from the nursery before it’s purchased, a rating system, a quote tool and request for proposal.

• Describe it: Another landscape software tool that works on a tablet and streamlines the process to create designs (using 10,000 available plant photos and descriptions), generate line-item quotes, track customer interactions and promote your company. Landscapers who used it increased their closing rates and received good customer feedback. It’s offered as a subscription-based service.

• Suntory Combo: Consumers can create mixed combinations using Suntory flowers in this tool made for Apple or Android phones and tablets, as well as for computer browsers. The process is simple and shows customers what a finished combo would look like.

Do you have an app you’d like to tell us about? Email jpolanz@ballpublishing.com and let us know—we’ll get it in an upcoming issue! GP