(re)Tail-toc
The Opportunity Statement
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How might we give retailers and services providers tools & resources to provide guidance to their customers when purchasing energy efficient appliances and seeking advice on reducing their energy bills?
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The problem
When it comes to purchasing household appliances, consumers have more choice than ever. Retailers provide a near-endless array of appliances in different shapes, sizes, and price-points.
Currently, the only consistent information a consumer has when shopping around is the product price, description, dimensions, and the energy star rating. For consumers looking to save money, their only focus is often the purchase price of a product - not the running costs, which can last for years.
There is little information outside the star rating to inform consumers on how energy efficient a product is. At present, consumers do not have information explaining how much a kWh costs them when paying their energy bill.
Existing retail websites, have little focus on energy efficiency. Consumers can filter by price and star rating however, no information is provided to help them understand what this means for the environment, or their energy bill.
The Solution
Running cost displayed alongside purchase price
(re)Tail-toc gives retailers the freedom to easily display running cost and carbon information of a product on their websites, and on in-store displays. Therefore giving the consumer an easy way to access important information.
(re)Tail-toc is an open API that gives consumers information regarding their personal impact (financial and environmental) of operating a household appliance. By pulling information on the products energy use (kWh), (re)tail-toc is able to surface the running cost, and associated information of the carbon footprint of a product.
This enables retailers to show additional information for a product outside of the usual price and star-rating; (re)tail-toc allows retailer and service providers to show what it will cost a consumer to operate a product in a metric that is ubiquitous - dollars.
We propose that DPIE use the appliance energy usage information to make an Open API available to retailers.
This will allow them to surface information on energy use and cost for consumers to make informed decisions when purchasing appliances.
(re)Tail-toc allows retailers to surface a products running cost and carbon-footprint on their website and in-store.
Impact
Give the user information when they need it
By having this information on the retailer website and in-store, consumers don’t need to do additional research and learn how to translate kWh into running costs.
Save energy, save trees
By purchasing energy efficient appliances, consumers save energy (and dollars), that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Help simplify the consumers decision making process
When making a decision on which appliance to purchase, consumers are able to make their decision with all the data they currently use; size, appearance, and purchase price. With (re)Tail-toc they are also able to make their decision using information on the running cost and environmental impact.
Attract and retain customers
Retailers who surface this information showcase their responsibility to the environment and their customers by empowering them to make smarter decisions.
Solution Architecture
The architecture has been designed to allow the information to be disseminated to a range of channels.
The information would be obtained from a range of sources, stored within the Azure ecosystem and via a chatbot or application programming interface (API) consumed by various channels.
It would be able to provide insights on information that is regularly requested, to make informed decisions on what appliances are being accessed.
