At Roots, in-store kiosk contest introduces shoppers to new web site
After serving its Canadian online market for years through Sears.ca, apparel retailer Roots Canada Ltd. has launched its own Canadian site on IBM’s Global Merchant platform and is promoting it through an online contest on in-store kiosks. “People have been lined up to use the kiosk and enter the contest,” James Connell, director of e-commerce, digital marketing and new media, tells InternetRetailer.com.
The new site, at Canada.Roots.com, features more personalization in the shopping experience, additional French language content, a revised store locator and a “flip-through” online version of the Roots paper catalog. “This is our first holiday season managing our own online store in Canada, and we’re happy with the results,” Connell says.
The new site was developed on the Global Merchant platform by PFSweb Inc. and includes personalization software from Sitebrand, Gatineau, Quebec. Roots also has begun working with Toronto-based search engine marketing firm Hooplah Inc. on a paid-search and search engine optimization campaigns.
But one of the most exciting efforts of late has been the kiosk-based contest, which Roots is offering in three stores at a time, Connell says. The company operates 130 stores across Canada, plus 8 in the U.S.
Store greeters at the contest stores give visitors tokens that contain codes numbers for entering online at the in-store kiosk. If a token contains a winning code number, the winner can earn coupons—$5 off a $10 purchase, or $10 off a $50 purchase, for example—that can be redeemed either in-store or online. The kiosk provides a mini version of the Roots web site, and the contest is designed to pique shoppers’ interest in the site and in becoming a multi-channel shopper, Connell says.
“Visitors get a quick look and feel of our web site on the kiosk, and hopefully get an incentive to continue shopping online on their own computers,” Connell says. The kiosks are from Toronto-based Endo Networks.
Roots plans to take the kiosk-based contest to other store locations in Canada. It’s also working with Sony Electronics Canada to outfit an Internet café in its one of its stores with seven Sony Vaio laptops that shoppers will be able to use to browse the entire web as well as shop Roots online.
Roots also operates its own U.S. site at USA.Roots.com, which also sits on the Global Merchant platform. The Canadian and U.S. sites are each linked from Roots.com.
Back...
