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Foyles’ innovative digital in-store shopping service

With so much great publicity for its amazing new flagship Charing Cross Road store, Foyles booksellers’ innovative in-store digital shopping service, launched at that time, got a bit lost in all the noise.

The first of its kind in the UK, Foyles Book Search allows customers with a smartphone to browse stock availability and to locate books within the new four-storey bookshop using an interactive map. The project has been nicknamed ‘Ariadne’ by Foyles booksellers, after the mythological figure who guided Theseus through the Labyrinth, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the labyrinthine old Foyles bookshop, with its narrow passageways between teetering piles of books.

With no need to download an app, a Foyles Book Search landing page will automatically appear in the web browser of a customer’s smartphone when they connect to the store’s Wi-Fi network. This will allow customers to search for the title or author they are looking for, displaying a map of the shop showing where it can be found and how to get there.

Foyles Book Search has been designed and built by Oxford digital agency White October, Foyles Book Search is the UK’s first in-store digital search facility with mapping. Users can search and check availability from the range of approximately 200,000 titles, as well as DVDs, CDs, sheet music and gifts. Images can be added to the map to draw attention to newly launched titles, making it possible to promote specific titles and events.

Foyles Book Search is being launch in Beta and will see a full roll out later this summer.

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