The Story
In 2020, Samsung Research gained a new President with the mandate to increase its effectiveness. Our discussions made it clear that many innovations were languishing in the lab due to an unclear path forward. In late 2020, President Sebastian Seung tapped me to drive a company-first effort to develop new products from the R&D portfolio and demonstrate a product-market fit by taking the product to market with real users.
The team was to be based in Seoul, South Korea, and I jumped in by hand-picking a small group of right-minded people with an entrepreneurial spirit and an open approach to building on the fly. At the same time, I drove a detailed study of available technologies that appeared — at least to the research leaders — to be ready for prime time.
After examining dozens of candidates, we identified indoor positioning as a critical component of our solution, tapping into the dream of digital capabilities in physical retail. This indoor positioning system opened the door to in-situ AR experiences, promotional campaigns, traffic guidance, and analytics opportunities beyond anything in the market.
Our solution was deployed to public availability through the EMart app in less than a year. It demonstrated not only the capability for analytics and guidance but also the ability to move users to target locations through dynamic promotions and AR campaigns. The real-time insights could detect slow checkout lines far before human reports came in and help users discover less-traveled locations in a multi-story megastore.
The proof of efficacy and ensuing interest from other retailers and venues created an opportunity for an expanded B2B service offering, where significant value could be realized for both customers and space owners, either via their own app or via a shared-access application.
