Mobile in Retail Environment
Innovations on mobile consumer devices make mobile retailing prime targets for in-store retail applications that would generally be the purview of only expensive, retail-particular hardware. “The success of the mobile channel by 2013 ought to not be determined by its percentage of overall sales, but by the sales uplift it can produce across all the retailer’s channels.” says a Gartner Report. Normally, the retail-certain hardware devices cost approximately twice as a lot as an iPhone, even when purchased in bulk. Today’s smart phone is considerably more powerful than the most recent generation of purpose-built handheld mobile computers and, because they are consumer technology, they are manufactured in sufficient quantities to drive down per unit expenses.
When investing in mobile Point of Service (POS) solutions, retailers should take into account options that support the use of consumer device-based implementations, such as the Apple iPod touch or intelligent phones, to increase returns and reduce overall costs.