Forget The Register: Stores Use Mobile To Make Sales On The Spot
The women's shoe department at Nordstrom's flagship store in Seattle is bustling. Shoppers are trying on everything from stilettos to rain boots — and when they're ready to buy, they can pay up right where they are.
The sales associate simply whips out a modified iPod Touch and scans the shoe box's bar code. The handheld device contains a credit card reader, too, so the customer can just hand over the plastic and sign with a fingertip. There's no trek to the cash register and no line to wait in.
At department stores like Nordstrom and at other traditional retailers, mobile devices are slowly beginning to supplement, and even replace, other methods of payment. In many cases, buying something is becoming more efficient and more personal.
No More 'Clunky' Cash Registers
"We think the days of the big clunky cash register ... anchoring down a department are really going away," says Colin Johnson, public relations director for Nordstrom.
"We are always going to have a place for the cash and we'll certainly take care of however the customer wants to pay," Johnson says. "But we do see the future as essentially completely mobile."
Mobile payments certainly make shopping easier. And while customers like it, retailers benefit, too. When shoppers pay on the spot, they don't have time to change their mind and decide they don't really need what they are about to buy.
In addition to boosting sales, mobile technology is often less expensive than the old-fashioned kind. And removing cash registers also frees up valuable real estate inside the store, say industry experts like Brian Brunk of Boston Retail Partners.
"There isn't a retailer we talk to that isn't embracing at least a blended, if not an 'all-in,' approach to mobile point-of-sale," Brunk says.
Enlarge image i