Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/282869
www.beveragedynamics.com March/April 2014 • Beverage Dynamics 15 [ RETAIL PROFILE ] Maximum Beverage in West Hartford, CT, uses innovative technology to improve the retail experience. TAKING IT TO THE MAX F or most wine and spirit retailers, adjusting to today's high- tech world might mean adding an off-the-shelf electronic kiosk with a wine-and-food pairing program; or maybe incorporating into the store design electronic shelf tags that allow more effi cient price management; or perhaps creating a robust e-mail newsletter pro- motional campaign. In other words, important but nonessential tweaks added to the retail mix. But for Maximum Beverage in West Hartford, CT, technology isn't an adjunct but instead at the core of its retailing philosophy. Take the array of about 20 electronic sensors owner Brian Whitney has installed in the aisles throughout the store. Those sensors tell him where people head after they walk into the store, which aisles they travel the most, how long customers linger at any one spot, even the length of time the average customer shops here. (That would be 17 minutes, by the way.) "With these sensors, we track how many people come into the store, whether they turn left or right, which displays and end-caps they stop at and how long they stay there," says Whitney. "We have real intelligence on what our shoppers are doing in our monthly report. If they walk in front of an end-cap, we can tell if they walk by or stop, and how long they stop there and if they pick up a bottle from the shelf." ACTUAL CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR "I think most retailers believe they know their shoppers and how they use their stores, but we learned they probably actually don't. For instance, we thought for sure our shoppers would go right as they entered the store, but we have found that they go left, and we've changed out shelves accordingly," says Whitney. Real intelligence about how customers behave while shop- ping is useful – so useful the company will increase the number of sensors used in a new, larger operation being readied for opening in late March in a community about 10 miles away. But rather than incorporating technology for its own sake, the upgrades fi t seamlessly with the design, decor and service at Maximum Beverage, all crafted to make the shopping experience enjoyable. That's what has been bringing customers into the store, says Whitney, and taking that approach has helped set the store apart from its competition in this well-to-do area. THE DISCOVERY CENTER At the 10,000-square-foot, high-tech store that opened in April 2012, the intersection of technology and a better shopping experience is the Discovery Center, anchored by a 42-inch touch screen LED monitor that allows customers to explore the store, search wines and spirits by type and place of origin, learn about how a wine will match with foods, even create a customized cocktail recipe that they can then print, e-mail to themselves or post on Facebook. For example, select carrots, oranges and vodka and the Discovery Center produces a selection of cocktail recipes from the 14,000 or so contained in the system's database. Custom developed for the store, the pro- gram also allows customers to search the shelf and aisle location of specifi c brands, or to make the evening's wine selections based on the dinner recipes they have in mind. "If you're having pork with Asian spices, you drag those items into the cart on the screen and the program recommends differ- ent wines for you that pair with your dinner," says Whitney. The site has been a big hit in the store, so much so that separate beer and spirit centers are in the planning stages. There are also plans for a vineyard-focused program based on Google Earth that would allow users to pick a wine region -- say, Tus- cany --and then drill down to view more about the vineyards that are represented in the store, to visit their websites and to learn more about the wines made there. Of course, installing these sorts of amenities including numerous LED screened end-cap displays that pro- vide complete information about the items shelved there, including coun- try of origin, region, reviews, tasting notes, price and food pairings, isn't cheap; the cost to include the various electronic bells and whis- tles in the West Hartford store alone hit about $300,000. The computer server room located in the rear of the store "looks like a tech company startup," says Whitney. "We have about 10,000 feet of CAD 5 [computer networking] cabling in the store alone." And every tech feature comes with a different set of problems and duties. "At fi rst, I would go in the store and see that the end- caps or advertising hadn't been changed in some time, but after two years we have it down to a science," says Whitney. "You really need to stay on top of it and there's an expense to that. You have to keep things changing on a regular basis or it gets very stale." Gathering data from sensors is only the start; putting in place changes based on discoveries about customer behavior demands effort as well. "We move around the sections quite often; we've moved South America, Portugal and Spain around three times since the store opened," says Whitney about the 500 to 600 wine section. "They are very high-margin products for us and we move them around so they'll get the most exposure. This is a "We have real intelligence on what our shoppers are doing in our monthly report. If they walk in front of an end-cap, we can tell if they walk by or stop, and how long they stop there and if they pick up a bottle from the shelf." –Brian Whitney BY JACK ROBERTIELLO