mPOS in Retail: Risks and Challengesĭespite speed and convenience, mobile checkout must be accompanied by safeguards to deter criminals who might surreptitiously walk out of a store, claiming to have paid for an item. LEARN MORE: Check out how retail technology solutions can help improve the customer experience. “That kind of ability to increase speed and convenience is increasingly important.” The devices, he told the magazine, can “take care of customers anywhere in the store,” such as a dressing room or shoe department. Those tools now outnumber traditional cash registers in some locations, Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson told Forbes in 2012. Such offerings follow in the footsteps of retailers such as Nordstrom, which in 2011 deployed mPOS devices in its namesake stores - as well as Nordstrom Rack outlets.
Nordstrom rack app scan Bluetooth#
Equipped with cellular devices and Bluetooth printers, Walmart employees can scan merchandise and accept payment on the spot. Walmart’s mobile initiative, known as “Check Out With Me,” was first tested last spring in the lawn and garden centers at 350 stores and was expanded to all Supercenter locations for Black Friday. The retailer’s “Skip the Line” objective builds on functionality introduced in 2017 that gave Target employees the ability to place online orders directly from the sales floor. Using Mobile Checkout Devices in Retail to Benefit ShoppersĪt all Target stores nationwide, sales teams received mobile technology to ease checkout lines during busy periods and provide immediate service in popular departments such as electronics. MORE FROM BIZTECH: Check out how retailers are adjusting to a tech-savvy world. “Widespread customer adoption is going to take awhile, but it will eventually become a standard.” “To me, it’s a no-brainer and something every retailer should invest in,” Forrester retail analyst Sucharita Kodali tells BizTech. Participating merchants range from Dollar General to Macy’s both added a self-service feature for shoppers in 2018. That could help explain why two-thirds of North American retailers plan to offer a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) option within the next three years, according the latest POS/Customer Engagement Benchmark Survey by Boston Retail Partners - practices that also include apps for customers to scan items and check out independently. Mobile in-store checkout technology, she said, is “lowering the barrier to getting people physically in the stores.” “We all know waiting in line is a massive pain,” regardless of the season, brand consultant Deb Gabor told the Los Angeles Times. Target and Walmart each did so last year before the holiday shopping season.Īmong potential clientele: The 52 percent of shoppers who, according to the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics, skip the hectic Black Friday shopping weekend because they don’t enjoy the experience. That concern has led some brick-and-mortar brands to deploy handheld devices to their employees with the intent of helping customers pay for items on the fly. At the very least, an unexpected delay could create a negative impression of a retailer’s staffing and efficiency. "We are not satisfied at all with our Rack business as clearly our recovery is lagging what we think it should be," he said at the time.For some shoppers, the sight of a long or slow-moving checkout line - even at self-scan kiosks, which aren’t always a quicker option - might deter a sale. 30, sales at Nordstrom Rack fell 8% from 2019 while revenue at its namesake department store rose 3% on a two-year basis.Ĭhief Executive Erik Nordstrom told analysts on an earnings call in November that the company had been engaging external consultants to look for ways to improve Rack's performance and profitability. Nordstrom, meanwhile, has been struggling to expand sales to pre-pandemic levels in a bid to match some of its peers. is now reportedly preparing for an initial public offering in 2022. That's after Saks Fifth Avenue spun off its e-commerce operations from its retail stores earlier this year, and executives have since touted it as a successful strategy. Kohl's has similarly been pressured by activist Engine Capital to consider the same move. Macy's is working with AlixPartners to review its e-commerce operations, after activist group Jana Partners urged the company to separate its digital arm from its brick-and-mortar stores. These investors encourage such decisions in order to fetch the higher valuations often given to e-commerce retailers. A potential review at Nordstrom comes amid a bigger shakeout in the department-store sector as companies including Macy's and Kohl's face pressure from activists to spin off faster-growing online businesses from more traditional retail stores.