GameStop Creates Digital Shopping Experience

The Gamestop Corp. (Grapevine, Texas) is launching a new initiative aimed at creating better shopping experiences.

According to USA Today, its GameStop Technology Institute will combine research from the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University's Mays Business School, and cloud technology from IBM, to build more modern experiences for consumers.

One potential experience spawned from the endeavor, says the report, is a smartphone app consumers can launch when entering a store that tracks video game wish lists and notifies them of deals related to those items.

Another is an app similar to augmented reality, where consumers hold up their smartphone to a video game box or other marketing material and call up a trailer.

“We feel the expectations of consumers are changing,” said GameStop Tech Institute senior vp Jeff Donaldson. “They would expect the same type of service and responsiveness that they would get from a digital platform.”

GameStop is facing increased competition from Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart, and its long-time policy on video game trade-ins has recently been copied by Walmart.