Three New Ways Tech-Savvy Retailers Will Be Connecting With You In 2017

The holiday shopping season is well underway, though both crowds in-store and an onslaught of e-mails trumpeting the latest deals can quickly eclipse shoppers’ festive cheer. Thankfully, CNBC is on hand to run through the top ways retailers could make the shopping experience a little easier – or more exciting – in the coming year. The beacon and geolocation technology that catapulted Nintendo’s “Pokemon GO” game to success this summer could help stores better connect with consumers. “In retail, discounting has become so ubiquitous … that it has lost all meaning,” said Catherine Cottney, manager of trends at market research firm Mintel. But, building on the “Pokemon GO” spirit of “urgency and playfulness,” retailers would do well to introduce location and time sensitive discounts “in response to everything from the weather to political or cultural events to engage consumers through some unscheduled serendipity,” Cottney said in a press release detailing key European consumer trends for the coming year. Helping to facilitate consumers’ potential to “catch” the best deals is Swirl, a Boston-based firm which provides in-store mobile marketing technology for retailers. One of the company’s mission statements is to help retailers “take advantage of proximity marketing,” Rebecca Schuette, director of marketing at the firm, told CNBC via telephone. See them all at CNBC.