Retailers Create Own Mobile Device to Cut Shopping Time, Check Out

Mobile purchasing is definitely on the increase. Analysts indicate that businesses are following suit, developing mobile apps and websites to facilitate the practice. Some retailers have branched out, though, to offer something else – their own mobile devices, available for customers to use in-store – indicating a potential new way to cater to the mobile customer.

Mobile devices have empowered customers to price compare on the spot, reducing the amount a customer gets locked into a purchase simply by being in a particular store.

Companies have reacted differently to this trend, attempting to increase customer loyalty by either engaging mobile capability by creating innovative apps or by reaching the tech-savvy customer in such a way to keep them in-store. A new way might be an in-store mobile device pioneered by supermarkets that customers can pick up at the front and then use while shopping to check prices, keep a running total of purchases and utilize a self check-out method.

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The device – called "Scan It" – helps ease check-out and potentially reduce incentive to price compare with competitors. It’s an attempt to cater to customer’s evolving mobile tendencies, while attempting to keep them in store.

The positive mobile purchasing trend parallels the mid-90s rise of e-commerce, pioneered by Amazon and EBay. Mashable writer Sarah Keller outlined the parallels, citing an early 2011 ForeSee study which surveyed 10,000 shoppers from top e-retailer sites and found 11 percent of them purchased products with a mobile device during 2010’s holiday season – up from two percent during the previous season. In addition, the study reported 30 percent used a mobile device to locate stores, compare product prices and look up product details – a way of developing relationships with online retailers.

These upward trends mirror the development of online shopping, which was preceded by a rise in online product research.

And retailers are increasingly meeting this trend with "Scan It," which a recent Smart Money article by Ann Zimmerman profiled. Used by about half of Ahold’s USA Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets in the Northeast, the device even looks a bit like a smartphone and shaves time off the shopping experience – a main barrier to getting customers in the store – and eliminates traditional check-out practices.

And it seems to be catching on beyond grocery stores. The article reports retailers such as Nordstrom and Home Depot are creating similar devices for employees on the floor to benefit customer-sales representative relationships by streamlining inventory searches and enabling payment on the spot. Apple stores have already eliminated check out counters, with sales reps using iPhones to ring up customers and email them a receipt.

The device even allows shoppers to quickly access inventory of the company’s stores. A recent Home Depot shopper, for example, needed more seat cushions than the store had in stock, but he was able to instantly ascertain with the device that a nearby Home Depot had his desired amount. The store was then notified to hold the items.

Eventually, some experts believe, these devices could eliminate traditional check-out registers, reducing overhead and payroll costs.

But then there’s the problem of the smartphone. Logic might indicate that the capabilities of these devices will be readily capable on any smartphone. Indeed, the company behind Scan It – Ahold – is already testing ways to download their software onto iPhones. So while Scan It’s technology might not go away, the devices themselves just might.