Today’s smartphones can search the Internet, make price-check comparisons and shop online.
Tomorrow’s smartphones will make in-store shopping more convenient, quick and cost-effective. They will give us instant coupons while we walk store aisles and can take the place of cash registers.
Wait. Tomorrow is already here.
Mobile devices are continuing to revolutionize how people shop, with a growing list of innovations being tested around the world.
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“I think mobile is one of the most exciting things in retail in the past 10 years,” said Artemis Berry, senior director of content and community for Shop.Org, a division of the National Retail Federation that focuses on online retailers.
Imagine this: An app that lets you scan your purchases as you shop and use a QR code to pay at the checkout stand without having to unload your cart to scan all the items again.
Walmart is testing such a feature. It’s called Scan & Go, and it allows customers to use their iPhone’s camera to scan items as they shop, bag them at the time and check out quickly at a self-serve checkout. Phoenix is one of the first test markets for this feature, which is part of the Walmart app.
Scan & Go was developed to make shopping more pleasant for consumers, Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said.
“Our customers are shopping differently than ever before,” she said. “They want to get through the checkout line more quickly. They want to be able to watch their budgets as they shop. They don’t want to have to scan an item to get its price, then scan it again when they check out.”
Such an app “empowers the customer,” Berry said. It combines the speed of buying online with the hands-on benefits of buying in a store. It enables retailers to compete with online-only shopping, she said.
Walmart isn’t the only store testing such an app. Sainsbury, a large British supermarket chain, has been testing a similar app, called Mobile Scan & Go, at three U.K. stores since October. No end date has been set for the testing, Sainsbury spokesman Thomas Knorpp said. The app is available for both iPhone and Android devices.
Shopping-cart apps are among products being tested as retailers try to harness the power of mobile devices. The innovations promise to save time and add value for shoppers, but also raise questions about job loss and security.
Pay by phone
Retailers are especially interested in having people pay for goods without hauling out their wallets.
One innovation is a “mobile wallet” app, which can be an alternative to using a credit card, depending on the brand. Instead of whipping out your Visa to pay at the checkout, you pay by tapping your smartphone. Mobile wallet apps also typically store your business loyalty cards so you don’t have to carry them around.
U.S. mobile payments are expected to grow to about $90 billion in 2017 from about $12.8 billion in 2012, according to Forrester Research, which is based in Cambridge, Mass. Paying with mobile wallets and smartphones is already prevalent in Japan and other Asian countries.
A group of large retailers that includes Walmart, Best Buy, Dillard’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Target and 7-Eleven have formed the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) and are developing their own app called the MCX Mobile Wallet.
The app, which is not yet available, also will give consumers special offers, promotions and retail programs from participating stores, even while they shop. It also will allow users to store receipts from all the purchases made.
“We think it’s going to make shopping more satisfying, more convenient and more interactive,” said Jeremy Mullman, MCX spokesman. The group has found that consumers want their shopping experiences to be more mobile as well as quicker and more organized, he said.
Merchants also will benefit.
“Merchants are looking at mobile commerce as a way to improve shopping and paying,” Mullman said.
Other mobile technologies under development include comparison-shopping apps, such as one that identifies grocery products and lets consumers sort them according to nutrition information, price and other features.
Impact on workers
But there are concerns about these mobile shopping apps, including whether ones such as Scan & Go will take the place of customer-service workers. Just look at the airline industry, where self-serve kiosks in airports take the place of airline workers.
“It’s very cool technology,” said Stephanie Bock, a 24-year-old Phoenix resident, about the Scan & Go app. “I would try it. (But) I’m a little concerned it will take jobs away from people.”
The potential for job loss also concerns Lauren Ochoa, a 22-year-old Paradise Valley resident, who said that she doesn’t use self-serve checkouts for that reason. However, she said she could see that Scan & Go would save time at the checkout.
The app is intended to be another choice of ways to check out, Walmart’s Hardie said.
“Scan & Go is not intended to replace cashiers,” she said. “We believe our multiple checkout experience gives us an advantage.”
Security concerns
Another concern is security, particularly when using your cellphone like a bank card. Mullman said that with MCX Mobile Wallet, a customer’s financial information will be code-protected and stored on the cloud.
Security also is an issue with self-scanning. How will a store know that a consumer has scanned all items?
“There’s some trustworthiness involved,” said Heather Knopf, assistant manager at the Walmart at Interstate 17 and Happy Valley Road, Phoenix. The store has been trying out Scan & Go since February.
About one in 10 customers using the app will be given a quality-control check by an employee, she said. Additionally, the app contains other measures to alert employees to double-check orders.
Inventory and ordering also could be problems. There’s a possibility a customer could buy five flavors of cat food but scan only one can and enter the quantity as “5.”
The apps also aren’t for everyone.
“It’s all about the empowerment of a customer who has already adopted the technology,” Berry said.
She says she sees Scan & Go as popular with moms-on-the-go, shoppers with only a few items and technologically savvy consumers.
Will a luxury buyer want to use it? Probably not, she said, adding that many customers will prefer the one-on-one contact with store personnel.
However, mobile-shopping technology is going to become only more prevalent, Berry said.
“It’s making the stores more efficient,” she said. And it lets consumers shop the way they want to shop, she said.