New York – GameStop said it will begin employing Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform to stream content within its stores.
Under the plan, customers will be able to view video game and digital promotional materials on their smartphones and Windows tablets, allowing for “a digitally immersive shopping experience within the physical store,” the chain said.
Sales associates can also use Azure to access customer information (for those who opt in) to provide “a personalized shopping experience” based on the customer’s unique shopping history, the retailer noted.
Other GameStop uses of the Cloud platform within its stores include streaming video-game trailers to a 4K Ultra HD TV, and offering an in-store mobile shopping cart that can be used by the customer for faster checkout.
“Microsoft has always been a fantastic and innovative company for GameStop to collaborate with, both in the technology space as well as with their video game consoles and titles,” said Jeff Donaldson, senior VP of GameStop Technology Institute (GTI), the company’s technical support business unit. “We are continuing to work closely with them to discover and aggressively elevate ways to enhance the retail experience for our customers today and in the future.”
Added Tracy Issel, Microsoft general manager of worldwide retail, consumer goods, hospitality and travel, “GameStop is utilizing our Cloud computing technology in their brick-and-mortar stores in new exciting ways, and demonstrating the type of retail technology applications we can build on Azure moving forward.”
GameStop, the No. 1 gaming specialty chain, announced last fall that it was partnering with AT&T to bring ultra-high bandwidth to 36 pilot stores in Texas that will offer rich mobile content, including video game trailers, special discounts and other promotional materials.
The partnership was announced here this week at the 2015 National Retail Federation Annual Convention and Expo.
