The Modern Hotelier #114: Improving Grab & Go Retail for Hotels | with Adam Smock
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Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier, coming to you from the floor of The Hospitality Show.
We are joined by Adam Smock from Impulsify. Adam, how is the first day of the show going for you so far? 
Adam Smock: it's been really great. you know, kind of with just our booth set up and, the team just had a lot of great interactions 
Steve Carran: How did you get into hospitality technology? 
Adam Smock: it's a funny story. I actually still call myself a hotelier at heart. Uh, I was in hotels for over 20 years. This was my first Job outside of actual direct hospitality and it's still like almost a gut. Check every day. Even to our own team. I tell them like, I still call myself a hotelier. I still keep up with.
Industry trends and have the different publications sitting on my desk to keep up with everything, hospitality. 
David Millili: And tell us more about Impulsify. 
Adam Smock: Yeah we say our niche is to help non retailers succeed at retail. so we really, first and foremost, present our custom based, retail management solution, which is our technology, so we're not only a point of sale, we also, do a retail inventory management, to really optimize, the revenue as well as actually manage your profitability.
And then we call ourselves Retail Experts, so we also bring in interior design, teams, that are internal that will build a retail minded interior design to not only use our system, but to then optimize your revenue potential based on the design of the store itself. 
Steve Carran: That's awesome. So where are you seeing the most success from these grab and go markets?
Adam Smock: clearly we're in hospitality. We're also in other verticals such as, uh, multifamily and outdoor hospitality are kind of our three target markets. And then specifically in hotels. it's really the high, uh, volume traffic areas such as the lobby, but we are now, creating more and more innovative solutions that are going even beyond the, the main high volume traffic area at the hotel as well. 
Steve Carran: are there any specific types of hotels that you see more success than others, luxury or any specific 
Adam Smock: When we have the proven technology and people following the operational best practices, we're pretty much successful everywhere, but we do seem to see the most value closer to our more the limited service, full service, and even luxury properties where they just have more of that volving, more of that traffic, more of that kind of need for those other offerings that complement their other outlets in hotel. 
David Millili: And can you tell us a recent success story? 
Adam Smock: Yeah, we We actually had a full service Hilton. I won't say the name just for confidentiality purposes, but they had an outlet that was really only open from 7 to 2 and that outlet was their main source of selling their grab and go and then we presented our solution to them and told them that hey, you can keep your outlet, but we can provide a solution that's self service grab and go outside of all your hours, It would be 24/7 they implemented our solution. They had an ROI in 13 days. I think in a 60 day time period, they made an additional $52,000 And again, beyond paid for itself, really provided a like I said, a complimentary solution to what they were already having and just really fit the need for that property. 
Steve Carran: That's awesome.
So unfortunately you're not the only grab and go market out there. What really makes Impulsify stand out from the competition? 
Adam Smock: Yeah, it's a little bit of what I said of, Having that full, really customized solution, cater to the property or the hotel owner. we will use our data and analytics to not just give a cookie cutter approach or cookie cutter millwork or design. We will customize to the hotel's aesthetic. We'll look at geolocation, the market, the owner's, preferences, brand standards, and we will customize our solution to fit the need of that specific hotel, that specific market.
Always with the goal to optimize revenue, provide better efficiencies and get the hotel as much money as possible.
and we kind of take out all the other business out of it. It's just like, we want them to be as successful
as 
possible and do that in any way we can, again, through our data, through our designs to optimize their space and, also ultimately optimize the guest experience. it might be a good experience to. Sell a product and have something at the front desk, but you don't need someone waiting 10 people deep in line just to buy a Coke or 
a bottle of water. 
They can literally, be self service and 86 of transactions move away from the front desk to do self service. And then that allows you more time to provide a better customer experience by actually engaging with your customers to talk about the best restaurants in the area or where they can go instead of just waiting in line for something.
David Millili: And so what trends are you seeing in the grab and go market right now? 
Adam Smock: Overall, it's like the technology of itself. It's, you know, of course we are that, we're both the technology and retail design, but it's just the more and more innovations with, uh, the technology, the integrated solutions with other offerings within your hotel.
We integrate with property management systems. So that's 
something. beyond just us as well that you see in the industry, retail designs, uh, is also just, a big aspect in and of itself. Um, again, different competitors, what have you, but we just really try to meld our customer designs with what the customer profile is, what they need, what they want.
self service alcohol. You're like, Oh, we see that all the, all the time with hotels. They're not always doing it maybe correctly or in compliance. So we've, we've partnered with clear and we have, ID verification on our kiosk itself. Um, overall in the industry in general trends is just, um, product variety.
so again, we use all of our data and analytics to, provide that best mix for that particular brand, that particular profile, what does the customer want and not just. A nationwide bestseller. It's great to sell nationwide bestsellers, but if you don't have the appropriate mix of trending items and items that are going to make you more profitable, you're also not going to be as highly profitable if you don't manage the whole product mix than just like nationwide bestsellers and things like that.
and yeah, just the further, uh, technology integrated solutions, like I mentioned, um, are just a big, uh, trend that's happening
Steve Carran: that's awesome. So what challenges do you see, you know, coming up in this industry, specifically in the grab and go market? And how is Impulsify set up for success to take on those challenges 
Adam Smock: Yeah, it's kind of two fold. It's both like in, um, the design space, a lot of people want this offering. Um, but they might be at a different size hotel and they don't have maybe the budget or the space in and of itself to build out a store and that's okay for us. We, we provide solutions that accommodate anybody.
So whether, uh, our bread and butter is the technology, so we can just plop our technology into any space, uh, whether it's a newly built or an existing space. but when people are looking at, oh, we love this idea, we love this concept, then we kind of work with them to say, What level of the solution do you need or can we start with something and build up to maybe a future renovation state or new build state to allow them to do that and then Just other challenges in the industry is in the technology world in like payments It's the different ways to pay, you know customer loyalty programs honor programs now Uh, EBT, direct way to pay.
It's not as simple as just swiping your credit card anymore. so we're always staying up to date on what's the best solution for the industry and of course, compliance and all those things that go with payments and technology, but how to best solve those problems ahead of 
David Millili: Great. So we're getting close to the end of 2024. What's next for Impulsiva? 
Adam Smock: so we were actually acquired this year in May by 365 Retail Market. so, it was time for us to, uh, join a partner and thus being acquired by 365 that is allowing us to just have more legs and resources behind 
us. 365 is a global leader in, um, micro markets, uh, again, around the world.
And we, are now another kind of cog in that wheel to provide yet another solution to the overall stack. And then with that, it benefits Impulsify because we do have our custom, uh, design approach and our custom technology, but now we are going to be very soon integrating with all their systems and providing even more solutions outside of just those kind of, as I referenced earlier, those high traffic spaces.
We now have other devices with AI technology and sensors that will allow us to have like a cooler at the fitness center or a cooler at the pool deck and all integrated with the ImpulsePoint Impulsify system. Um, so that then the hotel owner operator will have all the analytics of the revenue and the inventory management all in one place and not just have these satellite coolers.
Uh, it'll all be an integrated approach going 
Steve Carran: that is so awesome. So for those hoteliers out there listening that might be interested in learning more about Impulsify or just talking to you, Adam, how can people get in contact with you or reach out to Impulsify? 
Adam Smock: Yeah, our main email is info at impulsifyinc.
com, that's where all our main inbound kind of sales leads are. we have our 1 800 number on our website, ImpulsifyInc. com, and yeah, again, we are there to listen to see what are the needs of the customer, whether looking for a self operated model that's in most of our hotels, or they're looking for a, an operator model, um, or that full custom design, or just the technology solution.
We have an integrated approach of the solutions to make the options work for whatever the actual customer is looking 
Steve Carran: Awesome.
This is another episode of The Modern Hotelier coming to you from the show hospitality show floor. Adam, thank you for joining us and we appreciate you letting us stop by.
Adam Smock: you. so 
David Millili: Thank you.