Locally Augmented Retail

Client: Paul Bowes, Bacchanalia <Team@winegod.co.uk>

New retail support apps often focus on providing uniform services to individual consumers, regardless of where they are in the world. A key part of many such business models is that the service operator owns the relationship with the buyer, sometimes leaving local retailers as little more than a supply chain fulfilment node. However, in taste-based sectors such as the wine trade, a relationship with an expert who knows your tastes is far more valuable than a recommender algorithm. The goal of this project is to provide similar augmented reality functionality to the Vivino app (which records information on your wine tastes by recognising photographs of wine labels), but in a way that develops a personal relationship with a local retailer rather than just a personal diary. Cambridge wine merchant Paul Bowes will act as client to provide an expert industry perspective.