Mobile devices give you the control to the consumer, who ultimately spends more
By Ann Zimmerman
A device that resembles a smart phone is their life delighting shoppers in supermarkets and shops as well. Mounted on the cart, scan the different products that the user is choosing. Buyers like it because they avoid the endless lines of cash. For the benefit of supermarkets, the unit encourages shoppers to spend more.
- With the system, called "Scan It" (Scan it), shoppers scan and bag their purchases for themselves as they move through the aisles of the supermarket, while a screen will show the amount accumulated to pay. About 12 times per visit to the supermarket, the device sounds an alert when an electronic coupon is displayed on the screen.
- "Last week, just finished scanning coffee, I received a coupon for cream for coffee, it was something we needed," says Patty Emery, a resident of New Jersey, which estimated 20 minutes has reduced the time of his weekly visit to the supermarket Stop & Shop, which uses technology It. Scan "is great," he says.
- In recent years, retailers have faced competition not only from increased internet shopping but also for smartphones, which allow consumers to compare their prices with other shops nearby. Now, supermarkets are fighting back with their own mobile technology.
- Buyers who use the Scan It spend about 10% more than the average consumer, assures Erik Keptner, vice president of marketing and consumer behavior analysis of Ahold USA, which owns the Stop & Shop chain. Keptner attributes this to display personalized coupons that are presented to buyers and the control they feel when using the device.
- The department store chain Nordstrom has equipped its employees with mobile devices that allow, for example, to search the inventory of a clothing store in the size you could want and is not . Customer pays at the time, without queuing at the checkout.
- chain stores construction and renovation gave Home Depot its U.S. stores with devices called "First Phone." These devices, with access to Wi-Fi networks, serve as inventory trackers, walkie-talkies and cash.
- wireless devices to scan as you shop is the next logical step after the introduction of self lines where the buyer can scan products and pay without the help of a cashier. In the case of Scan It, when the buyer has finished selecting products, go to a cashier where you pay only or can deliver the device to an ATM to process the payment options, of course, may involve waiting in line.
- Ahold said that the tiers for Scan It should be short because the customers were the most time consuming tasks: scanning and packaging products.
- If buyers accidentally scan an item, simply select the "Withdraw" from a menu, scan it again and the product is removed. The total due is updated.
- Patrick Bearden, a seller of a Home Depot in Dallas using the First Phone to rescue several sales. On a recent Saturday, a buyer needed six seat cushions, but in the room only had three. In the past, Bearden would have had to walk to the front of the store and check inventory on a computer. But with the Phone First, he knew within seconds that the pads were available in a Home Depot nearby. Store advised to withhold the goods until the customer arrived.
- retail experts say that these devices could end the traditional ATM.
- Apple was the first to implement mobile cashiers in stores using portable tablet equipped with credit card readers.
- As more consumers carry their phones with information on their credit cards, debit and loyalty, more retailers adopt self-checkout technology. If the technology expands, it could reduce the number of employees in stores. Although, for now, most people see aid as an opportunity for their employees to spend more on customer service.
- On the other hand, innovation may also sponsor theft. Ahold said that handles customer bills to deter theft and so far not been found to be a major problem.
- Leslie Hand, an analyst at IDC, a research on information technology, says studies indicate that losses due to theft by using this technology are much lower than those generated by cash prices to type incorrectly.
- wireless devices that do not accept payments do not pose a risk to the credit card buyers and do not involve threats of identity theft. As for payment systems that do take the risk is minimized if they are handled only by employees of the stores.
- Experts predict that be long before these devices are replaced by their own consumer smartphones. Ahold is testing a way for consumers to download software to their own Scan It iPhones and is exploring ways to use their phones to pay.
- Sam Stovall, a resident of Dallas, recently bought a Starbucks gift card and enter your number in the application of the chain of coffee shops in your iPhone. Every morning, after ordering, brings up the barcode on your phone and passes through a scanner. A second later, the iPhone tells you how much you have left on your card.