Creating New Store Value through Co-creation With Customers

Information and communication technology has brought significant changes to a variety of business fields. For example, commercial stores we visit almost everyday, such as convenience stores and banks, have started to utilize this ICT. New stores are emerging with digital signage showing real-time interactive information and communication robots that provide customer service on behalf of store staff. For such business innovation that takes advantage of the cutting edge ICT like digital signage and robots, it is essential to have collaboration beyond the boundaries of companies and industries. Fujitsu is proactively working on new value creation, co-creating in cooperation with partners from different fields.

Let's check out a co-creation customer story.

Taiwan FamilyMart : Customer experience innovation with ICT

The convenience store may not just be a place just for shopping anymore. Taiwan FamilyMart is aiming to provide the most joyful customer experiences, the likes of which customers have never had before. Taiwan FamilyMart and Fujitsu are together considering more than 100 types of technology and performing demonstration experiments to determine suitable ones for the stores and the customers.

There's digital signage at the store-front. Inside the store, at the drink corner, there's a refrigerator with a door designed as a digital display to show information about products and campaigns.

There are also commemorative journey stamp collections that utilize the technology to incorporate website information into videos and light. With "FlowSign Video", the technology to insert website links into videos, just by holding a smartphone against the video, customers will be directed to the linked content where they can get points and coupons.

Another technology is "FlowSign Light". It uses “light” as the media to program the link information into. Once we set a special light for products in the showcase, customers can obtain relevant information just by holding their smartphone against each product.

These strategic approaches have already started to provide new experiences, such as a pleasant surprise when the customers walk into the store, the excitement when they touch the new technology and the interactive communication between customers and the store.

Customer experience innovation with ICT: Hiroshima Bank:

Could we disrupt the existing store image and make it fun and friendly? To tackle this challenge, Hiroshima Bank is testing the usage of communication robots for customer service instead of their store staff.

This robot is named RoboPin, and he can serve in both languages, English and Japanese. He doesn't just offer guidance about stores and services, but also provides information about the neighborhood. Other functions such as two way conversation are being considered, including integration of A.I. and human recognition, to be used at the un-staffed stores in the future, so that he can provide the best and the most optimized service to each customer. Hiroshima Bank and Fujitsu are working on their digital innovation together, to recreate their store value as a new open place for the local community.

“Co-Creation”, the key to digital innovation

It is quite difficult to bring about business innovation with one company alone. Let’s make transformation going beyond the boundaries of companies and industries happen, as well as transforming the current image of business itself. “Co-Creation” is the key that connects us together.