Mystery Shopper: Stratford

Tech-crazy Mystery Shopper has been reading about the wearables trend and wants to find out more.  Do the retailers know their fitness trackers from their Google Glasses and smartwatches?

6: O2

Product range – 0/5
Product knowledge – 0/5
Airtime knowledge – 0/5
Questioning ability – 0/5
Sales ability – 0/5
Shop appearance – 4/5
Total – 4/30

5: Carphone Warehouse

Product range – 1/5
Product knowledge – 2/5
Airtime knowledge – 0/5
Questioning ability – 0/5
Sales ability – 1/5
Shop appearance – 2/5
Total – 6/30

4: Vodafone

Product range – 0/5
Product knowledge – 3/5
Airtime knowledge – 0/5
Questioning ability – 0/5
Sales ability – 0/5
Shop appearance – 5/5
Total – 8/30

3: EE

Product range – 1/5
Product knowledge – 4/5
Airtime knowledge – 1/5
Questioning ability – 0/5
Sales ability – 1/5
Shop appearance – 3/5
Total – 10/30

2: Phones 4u

Product range – 1/5
Product knowledge – 3/5
Airtime knowledge – 3/5
Questioning ability – 2/5
Sales ability – 5/5
Shop appearance – 4/5
Total – 18/30

1: Three

Product range – 2/5
Product knowledge – 5/5
Airtime knowledge – 5/5
Questioning ability – 5/5
Sales ability – 4/5
Shop appearance – 5/5
Total – 26/30

Summary

Wearables is one of the industry’s biggest trends but the word was met with blank faces at most retailers.

The product choice was abysmal with only the Samsung Galaxy Gear and Sony SmartWatch available at any of the six outlets we visited.

It seems that phone shops and staff with their short-term sales targets are only interested in what they can sell on the day.

The lack of interest in selling the product seemed at odds with the prominent positioning of the Galaxy in some outlets.

Jeff won the day for an exemplary pitch but, as it stands, retailers are unprepared for wearables, if and when the technology takes off.

Full article in Mobile News issue 559 (March 10, 2014).

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