Three regional retailers showing customers love this Valentine’s Day
Customers can receive big love even from smaller retailers.
In the spirit of the impending Valentine’s Day holiday, in this column I’m looking at how three regional retailers operating across three separate verticals in three different parts of the country are all making their customers feel loved.
See how pizza chain Papa Gino’s in Massachusetts, grocer Foodcellar Markets in New York, and furniture retailer Mathis Home in Oklahoma are leveraging technology to ensure their customers always leave satisfied.
Papa Gino’s
Massachusetts-based Papa Gino’s Pizzeria is introducing a new website and mobile app designed to offer a frictionless customer experience and enhanced online ordering process. The casual dining pizza retailer has upgraded its website with a more intuitive design and new features, including a quick reference menu that eliminates the need for customers to log in to view menu items.
The revamped site also enables customers to sign up for the Papa Gino’s text program. Other features include a submission page to upload pictures for potential inclusion on Papa Gino’s social media pages, current deal listings, an online merchandise store, and career information.
Meanwhile, the new app offers functionality for placing a carry out or delivery order, scheduling a future order, and managing and applying Papa Gino’s rewards offers. Based on their ordering behavior, users will receive targeted push notifications designed to motivate repeat orders.
[Read more: Papa Gino’s unveils new e-commerce site, mobile app]
Foodcellar Markets
A New York grocery retailer is enabling customers to shop its stores with their mobile phones. Long Island City, N.Y.-based Foodcellar Market is the first retailer to fully deploy Instacart scan & pay technology, which is part of the grocery technology provider’s Connected Stores platform, in its stores.
Foodcellar Market customers are now able to scan items with their mobile phone as they shop, including loose items like weighted produce, and also pay for them via mobile phone. Utilizing the scan & pay solution, Foodcellar Market can seamlessly connect customers' online and in-store experiences, such as linking items bought in-store to their online Instacart account, to make it easier to shop their preferred items from Foodcellar.
To get started, Foodcellar Market customers scan the QR code on the sign located at the front of the store, which opens scan & pay in their mobile browser so they can add items to their basket as they shop. When they’re done, customers can checkout from anywhere in the store directly from their phone, and show a QR code as they leave to confirm their payment.
[Read more: Local grocer Foodcellar Market offers ‘scan and pay’ shopping]
Mathis Home
Tulsa, Okla.-based independent furniture retailer Mathis Home is directly connecting third-party sellers to its customers. Mathis Home is rolling out Mathis Marketplace, an online home furnishings marketplace featuring a curated selection of products from third-party sellers, as well its existing collections.
Mathis Marketplace runs on the Mirakl SaaS-based enterprise marketplace technology platform, and Merkle supported its implementation.
The new marketplace allows Mathis Home to rely on the distributed catalogs and logistics of hundreds of third-party sellers. The retailer intends to leverage the platform’s capabilities to rapidly fulfill customer orders and ensure availability of products.
Mathis Home also intends to significantly expand the assortment of products it offers customers with its new online marketplace. The company is partnering with brands including Surya to grow beyond furniture and mattresses into new categories such as baby, kitchen and home organization.
[Read more: Mathis Home launches third-party online marketplace]
