Through Toronto-based Lucova, selfies of the future will become useful for more than just social media sharing.
Pitching on The Disruptors, Lucova founder Amit Jhas explained that the platform allows customers to be recognized by face and name when they enter a store thanks to its integration to the merchant’s POS system, and allows retailers to carry out out transactions like preordering, in-store payments, and loyalty collection and redemption. All validation is done through the customer’s selfie, which appears on the merchant’s POS if the customer has downloaded the merchant’s app.
“Today we’re focusing on the student campus population. Tomorrow these students are going to be driving commerce and expecting a personalized experience,” said Jhas.
Bruce Croxon, co-host of The Disruptors, admitted that he’s always a fan of services similar to Lucova. “There’s a whole trend towards retailers starting to know their customers better and providing services quicker,” he said.
But co-host Amber Kanwar disagreed that the personalized experience — down to retailers addressing you by name when you enter a store — was always the expectation. “I take issue with the premise that people are looking for that personal experience and that’s why they turn to the app, but actually the reason that I use [apps like] Ritual is because I don’t want to be bothered with people sometimes.”
Watch the whole pitch below:
BetaKit is a production partner on The Disruptors. Tune in to BNN every Thursday night at 7pm for full episodes!