OVERVIEW/SITUATION ANALYSIS

Renowned fashion retailer, Galeries Lafayette, wanted to expand its state-of-the art customer experience at its flagship store located on the famous Champs-Elysees in Paris.

The goal was to develop a solution to enhance the shopping experience while providing Galeries Lafayette with real-time data to better understand customer preferences.

IoT developer BLUEGRioT worked with Nordic Semiconductor to pilot a custom-made Thread-based solution. Using over 2,000 Thread-connected hangers equipped with a touch sensitive display, customers are able to select variations and sizes of a clothing item to be delivered to the nearest fitting room.

Furthermore, the system provides Galeries Lafayette with valuable customer data about the popularity of specific products and the number of times items are being selected from the rack.

THE CHALLENGE

Paris has no shortage of high-end boutiques so Galeries Lafayette wanted to do something special to stand out in the minds of luxury buyers. Putting the latest technology at the core of the customer experience was one way to do just that.

While the young French company BLUEGRioT developed the system, it was Galeries Lafayette that first proposed the idea to equip clothing hangers with a sensor that detects when an item is being selected from the rack.

The challenge was to design a hanger to display continuously updated information about the available product versions and its inventory stock. And customers should be able to interact with it using a simple touch screen interface.

THE PROCESS

In order to be able to design a system that provides wireless connectivity with thousands of items (a first in the world of retail), BLUEGRioT investigated various networking technologies that could offer a reliable, cost-effective and flexible solution for its highly specific needs.

The system needed to cover the store’s large footprint without interruption – especially during high traffic periods. It was also clear that a low power solution was critical in order to minimize the need to recharge the hangers throughout the day.

THE SOLUTION

BLUEGRioT found that only Thread’s IPv6 mesh networking protocol could fulfill the promise of an easy-to-maintain, always-on, low-power network. The smart hangers include the Nordic NRF52840 wireless chipset and act as sleepy Thread end devices that only wake up when a hanger/item is touched.

The hangers are connected via 13 Thread routers and communicate every time a hanger wakes up to update the stock availability (approx. 500,000 requests per day). A centralized system in the store offloads all the statistical data and performs firmware updates. The system also offers insight as to which hangers need to be recharged, a simple process done in the store using a custom-built solution.

Each article of clothing is equipped with an RFID label giving it a unique ID. The hanger reads the ID and contacts the Galeries Lafayette database using the Thread network.

Competitive  Advantage

The system offers Galeries Lafayette a number of advantages:

• Differentiation from other high-end retailers in a highly competitive area.
• Appealing and modern, yet easy-to-use solution.
• Ability to make better use of the floor space and make it appear less cluttered by only displaying a portion of the store’s inventory, while still being able to offer consumers a wide selection of items.
• System offers Galeries Lafayette detailed and insightful customer statistical data that allows the retailer to identify popular products and the effectiveness of the store’s layout that it could otherwise never gather.
• Low maintenance and ease of use for the store staff: Thread enables long battery life so recharge cycles are limited, and Thread’s self-healing mesh network offers friction free operation requiring minimal maintenance.