One of the largest home improvement stores in the US has partnered with Pointr, a mapping and geolocation leader, to provide a digital mapping experience inside their mobile app.
This is the largest ever deployment of its kind to enable Store Mode experiences that allow shoppers to interact with the store:
- Lookup the availability of products inside the store
- Provide a 2D – 3D, interactive in-store map
- Find products on a map
To make this deployment a reality, Pointr has digitized over 2,000 retail stores across 280 million sqft, the largest indoor mapping deployment to date. The maps are now live inside the retailer’s mobile app and will be used by millions of monthly active users to enhance their shopping experience.
Digital maps are an imperative
Digital maps are imperative in retail as they are proven to increase retail app engagement levels significantly. However, while 78% of the top 50 US retailers have ‘Store Mode’ in their app, only 19% have already activated in-store maps.
Retailers lag behind because indoor mapping in retail poses two significant challenges. Firstly, manually creating digital maps for thousands of diverse stores is incredibly time-consuming which can delay an app launch considerably. Secondly, keeping maps updated in a retail environment that is constantly changing according to the retail calendar, promotions, and displays is a never-ending task.
The innovative deployment at the US’ leading home improvement store was made possible by Pointr’s innovative AI technology MapScale®. The AI retrieves existing maps of all stores in any format and converts them into interactive indoor maps in a fraction of the time it would take using a manual conversion. Maps can be updated and changed in seconds with simple cloud-based mapping tools. Once this step has been completed, the groundwork is laid for rich and engaging location-aware features.
