Bon-Ton Department Stores Shoe Salons Make Shopping for Shoes a Breeze

NEW YORK, Nov. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In keeping with the growing trend that mobile devices play for in-store purchase decisions, Bon-Ton and its family of department stores, which include Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson's, Herberger's, Elder-Beerman and Younkers, has developed a truly exciting twist to the department store shoe shopping experience.   Shoppers can instantly determine whether the store that they are in has the shoes in the size and color they are looking for, and if not, the RF:NFC* enabled display shoe can guide shoppers to the nearest store that has the shoe they are looking for in stock or direct shoppers to a mobile commerce site to purchase the shoe on the spot.  All this delivered with the tap of an NFC-enabled smartphone activating the RF:NFC* label on the sole of the shoe.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131121/NY22260LOGO )

Bon-Ton Stores has engaged Thinaire to turn shoes-on-display into mobile marketing channels for shoppers, by delivering upon tap (NFC engagement), branded mobile experiences, in over 30 of the company's stores across 11 states.  NFC allows for seamless mobile engagement with RF-enabled media and objects, delivering compelling content with a simple tap of a smartphone against the display shoe.  Earlier this year, Bon-Ton Stores installed in-store signage informing their shoppers about the NFC technology being made available.  The first Thinaire powered programs ran in the cosmetics departments featuring Estee Lauder and Clinique campaigns.  

Bon-Ton Stores will feature hundreds of thousands of shoe SKUs along with product information messages communicated by NFC-enabled decals powered by Thinaire.  Smartphone users will be connected to the products they care about by simply tapping their phones to the decals on shoes and signs throughout the stores.  Thinaire's mobile engagement marketing platform adds a new dimension to Bon-Ton's in-store shopper engagement; bridging the gap between physical media and objects, and the shopper's mobile device.

Luis Fernandez, Chief Omni Channel Officer for Bon-Ton Department Stores said, "More and more consumers rely on their smartphones to help them make purchase decisions while they are in a store.  By enhancing our displays with Thinaire's technology, we will be providing our shoppers with an engaging in store experience."  He adds, "Bon-Ton has developed a user-friendly mobile optimized process that makes it easy and intuitive for shoppers to find and purchase the products they want."

Thinaire's cloud-based mobile marketing platform is a great fit for Bon-Ton.  With a simple tap, RF:NFC enabled shoe, the shopper is immediately presented with product availability and driving purchase decisions.  "Can I find what I'm looking for at this store?" and "If not, where can I find it?" are two questions that mobile-savvy shoppers expect to have answered with their smartphones.  With Bon-Ton Stores proactively designing and providing this information, the store makes it easy to connect their customers with the products they desire. 

"By using Verizon Terremark's Enterprise Cloud, Thinaire has the ability to access unlimited computing resources during high-traffic seasons and scale their environments according to user demand," said Verizon Terremark senior vice president of Global Operations, Chris Drumgoole. "This flexibility allows Thinaire to power its multi-channel mobile marketing campaigns with confidence leveraging the economic benefits, speed and global reach only an enterprise-grade cloud solution can offer."

Patrick Meyer, Chief Marketing Officer, Thinaire, said, "Delivering dynamic product information through smartphones is just the beginning of the mobile engagement experience. Allowing shoppers immediate visibility into product availability makes the shopping experience more rewarding.  The additional benefit of receiving coupons and promotions further strengthens Bon-Ton's relationship with each customer who walks into a Bon-Ton store and taps. Shopping has never been so easy!"

*  (Radio-Frequency: Near Field Communication protocol)

About Bon-Ton

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc., with corporate headquarters in York, Pennsylvania and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, operates 273 department stores, which includes 10 furniture galleries, in 25 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains under the Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson's, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers nameplates.  The Stores offer a broad assortment of national and private brand fashion apparel and accessories for women, men and children, as well as cosmetics and home furnishings.  For further information, please visit the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://investors.bonton.com. Learn more at Facebook.com/BonTon, Instagram.com/BonTonStyle and Twitter.com/BonTon

About Thinaire®

Thinaire is the leader in RF engagement marketing solutions that US/Global brands and marketers turn to: Sony, adidas, Unilever, Kraft, Verizon, Nine West, Hershey's, et al.  Thinaire has pioneered a scalable cloud-based engagement marketing platform that enables brand messages to come to life on mobile devices using NFC and other mobile on-ramps. Thinaire's platform supports mobile engagement and activation initiating from multichannel media forms, including: In-store media; magazines and publications; digital place-based media networks; Out-of-Home media; special events; as well as consumer interaction directly from product engagement decals. Thinaire's platform is designed to deliver branded experiences and promotions that make offline media digital, social, measurable and mobile enhancing consumer-brand engagement, increasing activation and facilitating mobile transactions. Thinaire is a Global Award Winning Finalist for industry pioneering for their Kraft/Halls NFC enhanced Media  For more information, visit www.thinaire.net.

Press Contact:
Catherine Barton, Head of Strategic Marketing
Thinaire Transmedia Network, Inc.
400 Park Avenue - 6th Floor
New York, New York  10022
646.293.7282
[email protected]

SOURCE Thinaire