The Dandy Lab Brings IoT, Innovation In-Store

By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1

May 2016 Innovative Retail Technologies

By marrying traditional retail and interactive, innovative technologies, The Dandy Lab delivers a useful, memorable customer experience that’s redefining the industry.

Julija Bainiaksina, cofounder of The Dandy Lab located in Spitalfields Market in East London, had a distinct vision for what digital and physical convergence in retailing should be. As such, the goal was to bring interactive retailing to life by offering a physical retail experience driven almost completely by technology in a way that brings the Internet of Things (IoT) to someplace it’s not usually found — the store.

The Dandy Lab prides itself on its commitment to innovation, as the shop is a real-life lab dedicated to cutting edge technologies in retail environments. Bainiaksina expresses that one of the reasons she cofounded The Dandy Lab was to create a space for independent makers to easily sell their products and connect with their customers. At the same time, Bainiaksina and her team wanted to be leaders in the retail space known for selling very traditional products by way of very innovative technologies. “One of our on-going primary objectives is to find, implement, and understand how innovative retail technologies can help us shape our business and drive sales,” explains Bainiaksina.

And that they did. Bainiaksina states that The Dandy Lab has implemented a plethora of technologies to help improve the customer experience and drive sales. Iconeme’s interactive mannequins “talk” to customers through a mobile application, sharing product information on garments, providing detailed styling sheets, and highlighting special offers. Shoppers can then browse the retailer’s website to purchase or even share the look on social media. The Dandy Lab has a mobile payment app used by 40 percent of its customers, which allows them to skip the cash wrap and pay directly from their smartphones. They implemented Snap Fashion, a color recognition app, which allows customers to scan the color of a product so the app can suggest complementary accessories. The Dandy Lab has Wi-Fi access points, which allow customers to connect to the store’s network. These and other in-store concepts encourage shoppers to interact with products and displays for a truly blended physical and digital experience.

IoT Ensures Optimal Performance
The Dandy Lab’s technologies could not work as succinctly or as seamlessly as they do without a robust networking backbone. Indeed, Bainiaksina turned to Cisco to implement a number of its IoT technologies to ensure optimal performance. CMX, Cisco’s location analytics and engagements platform, and Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi work with The Dandy Lab to enhance overall business planning and to better understand store traffic patterns. By using Meraki’s access points to detect visitors via their mobile devices, Bainiaksina can extract analytics from all connected and unconnected Wi-Fi devices in the store. Cisco interconnects every solution inside the store. “Cisco creates one single network that integrates all of these technologies,” she says. “Basically, Cisco is the backbone of the shop.”

The idea behind The Dandy Lab is to provide not just a platform for British makers to sell their products, but also for retail technology companies and startups to showcase their technologies and test them in a real customer-facing environment. The concept is brilliant, and it’s the networking infrastructure that helps to fuel it.