US retail giant Target is rolling out a system that can offer customers discount vouchers over social networking sites in a bid to lure them back into bricks-and-mortar stores.
The systems enables people to select the deals marketed to them via sites such as Facebook, and download special barcodes that can be used to redeem the offers in store - the deals are not redeemable via the retailer's website.
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Target is using a service call Cartwheel, an online shopping service it owns, that requires users to download and integrate an app with either Firefox or Internet Explorer web browsers. The link with Facebook will enable Target to better track and store details of customers who might otherwise remain anonymous.
Details about purchases are then shared with the customers' friends via Facebook.
A beta test of the service will start today, advertised on the company's website, as well as on Facebook and in direct email marketing to known Target shoppers and card holders.
The company told Reuters that it has worked with Facebook on the scheme for a year, and that it has no plans to offer the service over other social networking sites. An app to be released in June will enable shoppers to check the availability of stock by scanning an item's barcode.
This, in many respects, is a reverse of the trend of "showrooming" in which people browse the goods they are interested in buying in a bricks-and-mortar store, before purchasing the item over the internet, on their smartphone, much more cheaply than they could in-store.
Other US retailers are encouraging mobile-friendly customers to shop at their stores by providing apps for iPhones and Android devices enabling them to scan the products they are buying as they go in order to speed up check-out.
