Farewell to Prospect and Refuge hello Push Notification

 When I was in college I had a design exercise that revolved around the concept of "Prospect and Refuge". The concept at base level assumes that we like to "see without being seen". This has been used to explain why elevated homes, front porches and loft terraces have been desirable for hundreds of years. We like to sit up high look out over our land or the streets below...people watch, but not be seen or identified. Some like to remain as I call it "Socially-anti-social". I have a FaceBook account that allows me to be connected but I limit my "Friends" to my immediate family. My wife calls it "Anti-social on the Social Network."

Watching retail and smart technology trends it seems our culture is moving past this and testing the waters of being exposed. Why? we LOVE shopping and we LOVE a good deal. We will come down out of our tree houses to snatch up a new pair of shoes, jeans or sunglasses at a bargain.

Social Couponing, Social Shopping, Push Notifications, and GPS/geo-tracking are all growing terms that illustrate this movement. 

 FastCo. is writing an ongoing piece on this very concept:

Here are two standalone apps making a dent in consumer retail behavior. The first is TikTok, which lets retailers push offers to shoppers at opportune times. The other, Social Impact, is a store search tool that only looks in a curated list of stores.
Via Retail-Digital

Based in Vancouver, TikTok is the next generation in Social Couponing operating on the concept of free. Businesses are now able to set up free and time sensitive offers, in-store and in minutes. Interested users receive the limited time freebies through geo-targeting on their iPhone or Android devices, and opt to visit the retailer and redeem the offer. TikTok offers a free platform to control and drive in-store traffic for when business is slow - or there is a premium to use the advanced targeting interface.

Via Good:

“Social Impact” is a free app that utilizes the iPhone’s GPS system to display the closest retail social enterprises—including restaurants, coffee shops, and craft stores. The developers, Rolfe Larson Associates, have added nearly 700 businesses to the app's database so far—each include serving the common good as part of their mission. The developers are eager for users to suggest more socially progressive businesses to grow the network.

These apps play to another social trigger we have built into us. Exclusivity. If we feel like we have the inside track on an alleged good deal we feel even more inclined to run out and snatch up the deal. We get bragging rights and feel like we have VIP access to get something special.

The question H2G asks our clients and partners:
1. Is this a trend that can be ignored?
2. How does this effect customer base?
3. How can this be used to drive shoppers to the brick and mortar stores?
4. What's next?

More from FastCo. here. http://www.fastcolabs.com/3007977/future-retail/software-changing-future-retail-trends-watch.

Adam