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// Public Gaming International // March/April 2015
Paul Jason, PGRI:
I have always thought
that Retail has been slow to modernize. But
then I was in Bed, Bath, and Beyond last
week. They didn’t have the vacuum that I
wanted, so the clerk walked me over to a
monitor where we placed the order online.
Free shipping. I asked if I could get free ship-
ping on everything that I bought online and
I could. So I ended up not taking anything
at all out of the store, and instead ordered
everything online right in the store. And
Bed, Bath, and Beyond e-mails discount
coupons all the time. So I pulled those up
on my Mobile and the clerk scanned in the
barcode from my cell-phone to activate my
discounts. It struck me that this whole expe-
rience is almost like reverse “showrooming.”
Instead of using retail to make buying deci-
sions and then going home to buy it from
Amazon or some other online merchant, I
was able to use the retailer’s own in-store on-
line connection to buy a product in the store
that the store did not have in stock! Maybe
Retail is getting its Mojo back?
Russell Young:
I don’t know that Re-
tail ever lost its Mojo, but it is definitely
pivoting in a big way to bring digital
and internet into the in-store shopping
experience, just like you experienced at
Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Retailers are
figuring out how to compete with the
dotcom merchants. Shoppers who went
to the land-based store to “showroom”
the product, to see and touch the prod-
uct and then return home to go online
to buy it from a different online vendor,
had been the bane of the retail sector. Re-
tailers got smart and are now investing
heavily in the build-out of an integrated
in-store shopping experience. They are
using multiple media, like Carmanah’s
Interactive Video Walls for instance, to
capture the attention and engage the
interest of the shopper. Retail is now at
the intersection of the digital and physi-
cal worlds and are bringing these worlds
together into their store environment.
They are investing in the technologies
Public Gaming
Interviews
Russell
Young
Senior Vice President of Interactive
& Mobile Experiences
Stratacache/Carmanah Signs
PGRI Introduction:
Retail is a top-of-mind topic for Lottery, and for good reason. In some markets (like the U.S.) almost all sales go through
the land-based retail channel. And in all markets, even the ones which have gone far along the path towards online sales (Europe, Australia,
Canada, and others) the vast majority of their sales still come from the land-based retail channel. As an industry, we are invested in Retail, and
the vast network of retailers is our best defense against the encroachment of new gaming options that will enter the market in the coming years.
Lottery knows it needs to modernize its methods to connect better with the modern consumer. Well, the retail sector needs to modernize
too. So why not go there together? Let’s work together to bring the digital world right into the land-based stores. Retailers are already
creating the shopping experience that integrates consumer-facing devices and monitors that bring all varieties of digital media, interactive
messaging, transaction-processing services, and information sourcing tools directly to the guests right in their own stores. Carmanah is in
the business of helping lotteries carve out a role for themselves in this modern retail environment. Russell Young helps me to understand
what this means and how lottery can take full advantage of the opportunities that it presents.
Land-Based Retail Brings the Internet into the Store
“Digitizing” the In-Store Shopping Experience
