Employees at Wal-Mart Stores are testing a new checkout system that allows shoppers to use their mobile phones to scan items as they walk through stores and pay at self-service kiosks, skipping the cashiers' lines. Keep in mind that it is a "scanning" application, not a "mobile payment" program.
Wal-Mart is not proposing, at the moment, to support payment using the mobile, but only to allow the mobiles to scan items before check out, saving time at the registers since all the items already have been scanned.
"Scan and Go" could have many of the same advantages as a mobile payment system, though.
Wal-Mart's scanning program could allow Wal-Mart to collect data on what customers buy and how long they spend in stores, and to send shoppers coupons for competitive products in real-time as they scan items.
The program illustrates one more way mobile commerce can add value for consumers and retailers, without a formal "mobile payments" capability being added.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Wal-Mart Tests Mobile Checkout
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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