Sightings: Interactive product locator in Canadian Tire

June 29, 2011 by Dave Haynes

I have known the guys at Toronto-based Jibestream for more than a year and (disclosure) done some work with them here and there. They do interactive work for public-facing screens and have developed some very nice stuff, like a GIANT interactive wayfiding/directory piece in the concourse of Toronto’s Pearson T1 airport terminal.

They have a new press release out regarding work they are doing in Canadian Tire, a very large Canuck retailer that is kinda like Toys R Us for adult males. They sell automotive stuff, power tools, sporting goods, BBQs and piles of other stuff. It’s a big box, but different from a mass merchandiser.

Anyway, they dispose a lot of my disposable income in swimming pool chemicals, garden hoses and parts for things we break with remarkable pace and ease.

Jibestream has a project running in a Canadian store that’s showing how a digital product locator kiosk moves people around the store and drives sales promotions.

Located at the entry area of the iconic Canadian retailer’s Meadowvale (metro Toronto) location, the Jibestream product locator features a Canadian Tire-branded 42-inch LCD touch screen loaded with content and tools designed to promote sales items, drive purchases on high margin and over-stocked goods, and enhance the overall consumer experience.

 

The kiosk developed by Toronto-based Jibestream has a broad suite of software tools that enable such things as a searchable, interactive version of the weekly Canadian Tire flyer, video ads served in real-time based on search analytics, and mapping tools that direct buyers to goods sold in the large footprint general merchandise retailer.

To drive awareness and usage of the kiosk, a special Canada Day promotion is planned this week with the outdoor products company Coleman. From June 29-July 3, Toronto-based event marketing firm Mouse Marketing will have staff on site guiding consumers to the Jibestream kiosk to search for featured Coleman products, with prizes awarded to some participants.

The promotion is designed to educate and raise general shopper awareness of Coleman products, and drive impulse sales, as well as demonstrate the ease of use and value of Jibestream’s retail technology. The Coleman event follows a separate promotion done in mid-June with Miracle-Gro fertilizer products.

What’s interesting to me is how mobile is integrated, and how they have taken the static, one-dimensional Canadian Tire flyer (just about every Canadian gets one via newspaper insert each week) and made in interactive and searchable. I also like the notion of contextual serving, so that someone clicking on a power tool sale item might also see a spot for a related item.

The kiosk is at a store in the Mississauga area of Toronto (Meadowvale, if you live in these parts).

 

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