Microsoft reimagines retail with synchronised shopping at Harvey Norman

As part of its retail reimagined strategy, Microsoft is debuting a new retail solution in Harvey Norman's Millenia Walk Flagship Store in Singapore called Microsoft Synchronised Shopping.

With this solution, customers on Harvey Norman's website interact with a customised conversational A.I. driven product advisor that asks a series of questions designed to help them identify the products that best meet their needs.

For example, a customer wishing to buy a laptop, would be asked questions like, "Will you be using the laptop for work or games?" or, "Is battery life or performance more important?"

From their choices, a 'shopper pass' is created and stored within their Apple Wallet or Google Pay app on their mobile devices with an embedded geo-location service that will direct them to their selected devices when they are in the store. If someone else is using the desired PC, Microsoft Synchronised Shopping will automatically recommend a similar device to try.

According to Microsoft, the only data stored is the shopper pass within the Wallet or App on the customers' mobile device, with neither Microsoft nor Harvey Norman storing and information or shopping preferences.

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It is hoped that the Synchronised Shopping solution will equip customers with an idea of what they are looking for in a laptop before they make a more informed purchase decision.

Should they decide to view or want hands-on experience with them, they would already have an idea of what they need to ask a salesman in the store for. Rather than agonising over a buying decision, customers would have access to the information they need to make an informed choice.

One feature expected to arrive in the next few weeks for Synchronised Shopping is the ability for a customer to select a few products to do a technical or specs comparison in the store.

Customers must be able to make decisions holistically, especially in a digitally connected world. This has always guided how we curate our assortment of offerings, and it now shapes how we look at connecting online and offline channels seamlessly for our customers. Synchronised Shopping is a major step in the right direction to help all of us live this 'connected life'. I am excited to see the results of this pilot run and we will continue to improve on and expand this experience.

- Katie Page, CEO of Harvey Norman.

Microsoft Synchronised Shopping is currently exclusively piloted at the Harvey Norman Millenia Walk Flagship Store. Consumers in Singapore can begin their online journey here.

The solution was developed in partnership with Microsoft Gold partner Popcornapps and is built on Azure cloud services, progressive web-apps (PWA) and geo-location-based services. The PWA is designed to work with multiple form factors across iOS and Android devices and interacts with the devices in-store using a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) application.

All in all, this is great news for the casual shopper. For those of us who are savvier and seek more user inputs, do drop by Hardware Zone's vibrant notebook technical discussions in their Notebook Clinic forum. Also, it goes without saying, do check out their detailed notebook reviews here for more details, photos, and performance.

Happy shopping!

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.