How Will Wearable Technology Change Our Golf Retail Experience?3 min read

Wearable technology is fast becoming an opportunity for marketers, brands and businesses as usage levels continue to increase and more devices are released with incredible levels of functionality.

Golf Business Monitor’s Miklós Breitner assesses the ways in which these new devices could be leveraged by your marketing team.

The usage of wearables is not totally new to the golf industry. Those who were lucky enough to attend the Ryder Cup were able to experience the advantages of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This got me thinking about how pro-shops and other golf retail outlets could utilise wearables.

For many of us, if I ask them about wearables, the following things come to their mind: Google Glass, smartwatches (e.g. Motoactv of Motorola), and activity trackers (e.g. Fitbit). In 2014 there were more searches on Google for wearable devices than for fitness apps.

As usage increases we need to think how could we maximise these technologies to enhance customer experience in pro-shops and golf retail outlets.

At the moment I can see 3 major areas where wearable technologies could be utilised – in this first part of the article we’ll look at the first:

Providing more product information

Bricks-and-mortar companies have to compete with online retailers. Needless to say that online it is easier to obtain relevant information (and reviews) about products and services and compare them. Some retailers are already using QR codes to provide extra product information, such as Best Buy in the US adding QR codes to the fact tags.

Our challenge is to find out how to utilise wearable technologies to provide personalised offers and solutions in real-time. Customers today are expecting more and more relevant offers, greater access to deals and promotions and fast checkout (I will talk about payment solutions in the next part of the article). More importantly, once the customer walks in, the store can immediately engage him or her with services.

If the customer opts to provide personal information via wearable, this can give retailers further opportunities for marketing.

I would not neglect the demand generation capability of wearables. Burberry’s solution, launched in 2013 (see video on this page), is a good example where the company embedded a textile RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) label into its products. Burberry were then able to provide bespoke multimedia content specific for certain products.

Another interesting aspect is how your sales team communicates with customers in the pro-shop. We should think how we could support their work with extra information via wearable devices – for example, ongoing communication; remind the shop assistant that he is dealing with a loyal customer and what the customer’s brand preferences are, their shoe size, preferred payment solution etc.

We could also avoid the embarrassing situations when colleagues called to a certain place within the golf club via loudspeaker. In addition to this the wearable can improve employee efficiency, enhance training and reduce nonproductive time.

The Container Store (TCS) for instance in 2014 replaced its walkie-talkie system with Theatro Wearable (a wearable in-store communications device clipped to employees’ shirts) to improve the communication among its workers.

To succeed we must integrate the implemented wearable solutions with our point of sale, CRM, order management, campaign management and web content management systems. For integration to be effective then we are reliant on developers creating programming interfaces/APIs but this will no doubt take place as time goes on. I am less worried about security and privacy since our employees are used to being monitored.

In the upcoming second part of the article Miklós will look at 2 more areas where wearable technology could be utilised.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.