Challenge
Fabletics is a fitness and athleisure brand with 50 stores across North America and plans for expansion in 2021. With a business model that centers around its VIP membership subscription, customers receive monthly credits, product discounts, and free shipping for a monthly subscription fee. Like other digitally native brands finding success in the brick-and-mortar space, Fabletics began syncing the digital and physical customer experience by bringing the convenience of online shopping into the store with customer-facing technology. Leading the trend with other popular brands like Warby Parker, Bonobos, Rent the Runway, and more, Fabletics is finding success with this model even as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers struggle. Fabletics takes the in-store experience a step further by providing free workouts, events, and early access to new collections, treating its brick-and-mortar locations as a community meeting space. This results in even deeper customer engagement with the brand. One core function of Fabletics’ brick-and-mortar stores is to encourage membership subscriptions to its VIP program. Fabletics needed a modern take on in-aisle price checkers and a way to boost membership sign-ups in the aisle Price checking kiosks are a longstanding fixture inside retail stores. Price checking kiosks can provide an alternative for stores that don’t have time to individually label each item. They can also make the shopping experience better by providing customers with pricing information on items that have missing labels without having to track down an associate. Many states even require stores to have a price checker (or fleet of price checkers) to meet pricing regulations. However, take a walk down many big-box retailers’ aisles and you’ll be met with old, unsightly, often malfunctioning price check kiosks. These kiosks take up valuable floor space and serve only one purpose: showing prices. Fabletics operates smaller footprint stores with a clear aesthetic in which every square foot matters. This makes single-purpose outdated price checkers an unattractive option. Further, the fashion retailer needed a solution that could provide more than basic pricing information. It would also need to be able to show member-only pricing as well as detailed product information like pictures of other sizes and colors, as well as reviews to truly sync up their online and in-store shopping experience.
Solution
Aila’s Interactive Kiosk goes beyond price checking with membership sign-ups and detailed product information Fabletics selected Aila’s Interactive Kiosk as a versatile and retail-ready solution for its brick-and-mortar locations. With fast and intuitive image-based scanning, the Interactive Kiosk is well-equipped to scan the QR codes that Fabletics uses to label its products. It also offered simple integration into its iOS-based customer loyalty app. Based on Apple’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro, it also boasts a bright and large 2732-by-2048-pixel Retina display to ensure all of Fabletics products are looking their best on-screen. Finally, since the Interactive Kiosk is built for iPadOS devices, Fabletics benefits from the speed, user experience, and development environment provided by Apple’s mobile platform.
Results
Fabletics finds brick-and-mortar success and improves the customer experience even during the Covid-19 pandemic While the pandemic has caused many retailers to change course, closing stores and delaying new store openings, Fabletics has seen success with its hybrid online/in-store business model. With 50 stores currently opened across North America, Fabletcs plans to open 24 more locations in 2021, increasing its brick-and-mortar footprint by nearly 50%. “We feel great about the return of retail,” said Adam Goldenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Fabletics. “Personalized experiences that make in-store worth the visit are more important than ever and that’s exactly what we’re bringing to new communities this year.” In keeping with its digital roots, Fabletics has a number of technology-driven innovations planned for its new store openings. Included in Fabletics expansion are even more interactive tools within the store, including both video and touchscreen technology. Fabletics has leveraged a blend of scanning and non-scanning kiosks in the aisle and in the fitting room to help customers find the products and information they need quickly. Aila’s Interactive Kiosk has garnered positive feedback from staff and customers, with staff reporting enthusiasm about the technology.
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