Mobility in retail in-store applications

Richa Tewari

Retail Marketing, April 2009 batch

Retail Mobility refers to the collection of real time accurate data at any point of store activity and gaining access to task related information at the work location point. As a result of this technology, more staff is available on the shop floor between customers instead of performing heavy backend work.  The consumer perception of store service assumes a marked impact by concentrating staff availability in customer facing locations. This is mainly achieved using some form of hand-held computing device which is used to implement a process in software at the point of activity or location of work.

Retail mobility technological solutions include a variety of single application devices, stand alone technology, wirelessly connected multi-tasking computer platform with printing and automatic data capture (bar-code, RFID) capability.

Retail mobile computing platforms are increasingly becoming more sophisticated and flexible and thereby presenting an attractive picture to retailers.  The advancements and acceptance of Wi-Fi as an everyday technology allows immediate update of data, and real time provision of information to store sales information at the point of activity.

To date, self-service executions in a retail environment were limited to informational wall-mounted kiosks, kiosk stations and self-service check-out stands. Retail mobile computer is a progeny of latest technological developments which is intentionally designed to revive the consumer in-store shopping experience. A retail mobile computer empowers your customers wherever they are in the store and provide instant answers at their fingertips enabling a fun and interactive shopping experience.