PERCH: Reimagining the Physical Shopping Experience

A pleasant surprise awaited a woman who walked into Jo Malone to purchase a perfume. The moment she touched a bottle, the screen beside her sprung to life with a stunning animation of honey, cherry blossom and fig that she swears she could then smell in the fragrance itself. It suggested combining with another bottle and thrilled by the experience, she eventually purchased more than originally intended, and became a regular customer. Behind the woman’s delightful experience was the meticulous thinking of avant-gardist technocrats and entrepreneurs, Jared Schiffman and Trevor Sumner. “Shoppers touching a product are 40 percent more likely to buy it. If you get them to hold it for 30 seconds, they will pay 75 percent more,” remarks Sumner. Mr. Sumner is CEO of PERCH—a pioneering retail marketing technology platform— which unites digital content with physical products through mixed reality interactive displays that offer magical experiences that surprise and delight customers.

PERCH pioneered the art of replacing conventional display screens with digital displays that seamlessly fit into any retail environment and sense consumer behaviors. “Our interactive retail displays use 3D camera sensing technology to detect when customers approach, touch, or pick up a product, to launch a new digital experience,” mentions CTO and company founder, Jared Schiffman. Each unit contains embedded 4G Wi-Fi hotspot that simplifies the installation process to connect with PERCH’s cloud-based server, leaving no room for breach of personally identifiable information. Accompanying the camera and display is a robust campaign management system that simplifies the creation of rich media and interactive product campaigns that unlock product-level marketing in otherwise crowded retail environments where brands can easily get lost. Campaigns for new products can be created and deployed effortlessly, while the displays track every customer interaction and the ROI is tied to product sales lift. The solution has impressed even the sales associates, for it allows them to dedicate more time toward providing valuable insights to customers on different products, as opposed to explaining the basics.