Intelligent mobile commerce solutions for retailers

By Jens-Uwe Holz

Shopping is going mobile. Leading retailers are now pressing full steam ahead to create a third retail channel to complement Internet shopping and bricks-and-mortar. That third channel is mobile retail. The massive interest the retail trade is currently taking in mobile shopping and mobile-phone-based payment is mainly down to one thing: the fact that more and more shoppers are now using their smartphones and mobile Internet applications for buying things. The transparency this delivers is already very much making itself felt in the trade, now that switched-on customers are able to discover whether a cheaper option is available at the click of a mouse – even while standing in the store. This is why retailers are now avidly searching out the opportunities presented by smartphone technology when it comes to customer loyalty and customer care. What they’re trying to do is make smartphones into shopping advisors and eMarketing tools that can also be used as electronic purses. To achieve this, they need technologies able to bridge the gap between mobile and physical-presence retailing and able to be integrated seamlessly with their established processes. Intelligently applied, the humble barcode (in the form of a modern “QR code”) is the perfect way to meet all these requirements in full.

Barcode = added value 

Barcodes are already widely used in retail. Materials like posters and printed advertising increasingly carry QR codes to offer consumers additional information. Behind the information held within the barcode is currently nothing more than a simple Internet link, and specialist IT service providers like Itellium are working on using apps to exploit the vast potential offered by barcodes in facilitating deliberate, specific interaction between retailers and their customers. Under development are things like mobile applications retailers can use as end-to-end shopping and advisory tools. Unlike the relatively expensive NFC (near-field communication) chip, barcodes can be used to do the same things at product level simply and at low cost, giving customers personalised additional information such as shopping ideas, product recommendations and even recipes. This generation of shopping tools is being developed using experience gained from earlier pilot installations used to test what type of sales support is most effective on fixed-location kiosk systems and special areas equipped with RFID technology.

If a customer has such a Scan & Buy app allowing access to current data, he can be given bang-up-to-date stock information pretty much in real time even when just browsing, and a direct link to the materials management system or in-store systems means he can be given specifically tailored buy recommendations featuring items currently in stock. When the item he's looking for isn't available in-store, the retailer can use location-based services to show him the nearest store he can get it in - or whether the item can be obtained faster by going online. And linking the app to the central ordering system means the item can also be ordered there and then.

Barcodes are offering retailers new ways of obtaining information, as well as being a highly effective means of controlling and directing sales incentives. They can be used, for example, in conjunction with electronic coupons to promote goods at specific times of day, in specific locations and to specific target audiences. Indeed, integrated mobile payment methods can even be used to set promotional prices only available in selected scenarios. This really does offer retailers a powerful tool for generating customer loyalty.

By integrating mobile payment methods, retailers are already giving their customers a "seamless medium" shopping experience - even across different sales channels. And here, too, the barcode comes up trumps. Indeed, mobile payment set-ups using barcode-based tech platforms like Itellium's "ItelliPay" product can be used simply and easily wherever a smartphone is able to photograph a barcode containing the essential transaction details. Generally speaking, barcode payment technology can be used without any separate hardware investment, and it can be up and running as soon as the relevant software is loaded. Payment by barcode takes no longer than using a debit card, and it can be done in-store, at a kiosk system or online. The sheer flexibility of this technology is especially valuable within cross-channel strategies used by retailers who want to generate growing sales revenue through integrated use of a wide variety of channels to market.

"App"timise your processes!

Mobile apps have long been doing more than just helping retailers exploit the potential of securing customer loyalty. They're also really proving their worth when it comes to juicing up in-company processes too - in fact they're already enabling retailers to improve the way they network a wide array of different online and offline communication channels. Innovative iPad apps, for example, are now enabling all stock changes and order amendments caused by customers' shopping activity to be tracked using mobile devices pretty much in real time, while exploiting this greater transparency to tweak processes within the materials management function and, say, prevent stock-outs - all via mobile devices.

A lot of value can also be added by mobile applications allowing centrally generated forms like customer returns or good-inward receipts to be accessed by mobile devices irrespective of location, thereby enabling departments to process the forms "on the fly" using iPads or smartphones, changing them without any programming intervention and then, once completed, uploading them to the central server again. This seamless-interface way of working means key data can be provided quickly right across the different functions that make up a business.

Technologies that connect fixed-location, mobile and online retailing in an intelligent way are really the focus of attention right now. As an IT service provider with many years of experience in retail IT, Itellium is developing these enabling technologies with the aim of using mobile apps to make retail processes faster, simpler and more cost-effective. Our IT professionals are doing this, among other things, by exploiting the potential which barcodes have to offer right now to retailers in terms of boosting customer loyalty and such like. Retailers - and also payment providers - are getting the benefit not just of our people's technology expertise, but also of their extensive process experience too. That's what makes Itellium's expert retail consultants sought-after partners whom our clients rely on to pinpoint intelligent solutions by starting - always - from what it is that a business really needs.

Your contact:

• Oliver Kirch, Manager, Marketing & PR

Itellium Services GmbH
Tel:           +49 201 220 22 25 19
E-Mail:      oliver.kirch@itellium.com

Your public relations partner:

• giw Gesellschaft für Informationen

aus der und für die Wirtschaft mbH

Ralf Wallbruch, Daniel Vank

Tel:           +49 201 877 867-0     
E-Mail:      itellium@giw.de