Congrats to Jerry Bell and the crew at Atlanta’s ZeeWise on the release of CARS Premier Edition. Â
From the release:  ”CARS Premier Edition (CARS PE) is a Web-based software tool designed for use with Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks® to provide franchisors with insight into their franchisees, or “Zees”, financial and operational performance.
ZeeWise is an Atlanta-based technology company providing innovative business intelligence solutions to franchise organizations.
At the show, Intel and Microsoft announced a new digital display device. You can read the news release here, but a video may be more helpful.
While I’ll admit this ranked higher because of it’s high-tech nature as opposed to measurable business benefit, it really is a good representation of the things that are starting to happen in digital signage. At some point digital signage, augmented reality and customer loyalty will start to come together. This represents a unique look at interactive technologies that will start to differentiate the experience for the customer in-store/restaurant.
I’ll admit to being somewhat enamored with augmented reality technologies and their potential impact on the retail customer experience.  Not only does this potentially impact the in-store customer experience, but I think it’s a powerful way to extend the real shopping experience into virtually unlimited points of distribution. Fashionista by Rich Relevance, is a great example of this.
I think the impact for retailers down the road gets interesting. At what point does the in-home shopping experience come close to the in-store shopping experience? Is there a point where customers will gravitate more to these virtual experiences? It’s likely a ways out, but I think it puts additional pressure on bricks and mortar retailers to continue to innovate the experience in-store/restaurant, etc.
I’ve also recently written a post on this topic if you are interested in more detail.
The Modiv Media Shopper offers value to both the customer and the retailer. As you will see below, customers can scan products as they shop, see their running total, and are made aware of deals based on their location in the store (and seemingly other criteria). Checkout is done simply by handing over the scanner (and I would think at least a visual check by the cashier).
The future of in-store technology is increasingly in the hands of the consumer. We’ve gone from cashier-run checkout to self-checkout, to now checkout with a store-provided mobile device. In the near future, we will see self checkout with the customers own device along with relevant promotions and services that you can only get on proprietary devices today. These applications will be powered by software like RedLaser running on the customers smartphone.
In-store mobile is just getting started. Innovative retailers will use it to gain preference, differentiation and competitive advantage.
Next on the list is the Mac POS. The one I spent more time with was LightSpeed (there was another called Checkout). Here’s a video. The iTunes-like UI is attractive and intuitive which will be important for the next generation of retail employees.  A more intuitive UI can also help new employees get productive faster and with high turnover rates in retail, this can mean a real return.
Because of the price point of Mac hardware and the dearth of peripherals, I don’t see wide-spread adoption.  I can however see a great fit in certain high-end or high-tech retail environments.
Transaction Tree enables retailers to provide electronic receipts to their customers. They do this by collecting emails at the POS, combining them with the actual transaction data and enabling retailers to deliver customized emails with both the receipt data and relevant marketing.
Digital Receipt History
In 2000, NCR led creation of the Digital Receipt alliance. Participating companies were Visa, Office Depot, America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.’s VeriFone division. The alliance proposed a standard for digital receipts to the National Retail Federation’s technology standards body which now maintains this standard.
So, companies have been working in this space for nearly a decade.  There have been several attempts to approach this more from the consumer-side of the equation – attempting to create demand for a customer ‘receipt repository’ of sorts.  The latest entrant is Intuit QuickReceipts. Transaction Tree has instead focused on providing technology which captures customer email and transaction data to facilitate emailing of the receipt along with relevant marketing messages.
What’s Changed
A few things are different now and may provide the catalyst for companies like Transaction Tree:
Risks
Collecting receipt information is not a difficult technical problem.   I know of at least one POS company that has an add-on module allowing for email receipts.  I believe Epicor announced something at NRF as well. If retailers want it, POS companies will be forced to offer it.
The question is, will POS companies and retailers do this themselves as opposed to leveraging a company like Transaction Tree? Perhaps, but the value to retailers is less in the data collection and more in how that data enables retailers to more effectively reach their customers. This is not in the core skill set of most POS providers.
Their main competitors are AfterBot, Third Solutions and AllEtronic. Afterbot was the only other one I saw at NRF.
Is the time right for digital receipts? I think you will see retailers increasingly making this option available to their customers. Will Transaction Tree be a dominant player? It’s too early to tell, but if they add value beyond simply email and transaction capture, then they have a shot.
Full Disclosure:Â While I have no financial interest, I have informally advised Transaction Tree and have referred them to retailers looking for a solution like theirs.
Microsoft Surface has been around for about two years, but this was the first time I’d seen good applications to retail and the customer experience.
Here’s a demo from IdentityMine:
And here’s another by CSG
Interesting way to engage the consumer.
FaceCash is another take on the digital wallet. From their handout at the show,
“Use FaceCash and the Thinklink network to pay for goods and services at participating merchant stores – all with your iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry or Android phone. Everything about good old plastic, from rewards to statements, is even better with FaceCash. It’s easy, and it will save you time and money whether you are buying or selling. “
Here’s how it works (from their brochure at the show):
The team at NRF told me that unlike Square (which also provides a card swipe device for the iPhone ) FaceCash was meant to be like ‘paypal’ for retailers and leverages scanners instead of a proprietary device.
The mobile wallet is something of a holy grail being pursued by mammoth, global companies (e.g., Qualcomm ). It’s coming, but I don’t think companies like FaceCash will be able to get the critical mass required. So, while I don’t think FaceCash is the next big thing, it’s a good illustration of where we are heading.  For independent business owners FaceCash, Square, Mophie and perhaps Apple itself, all signal a fairly significant change in the cost of being able to accept credit cards. There will be impact to the incumbent hardware providers in this space as well as the large payment providers – to the benefit of retailers large and small.
Unfortunately, I think the FaceCash guys have a very tough road ahead up against better capitalized, larger competition, but the concept itself is a good example of where things are heading.
Photo credit:Â iPhone Mobile Payment 100 Euro by Monty Metzger
I’m not sure how I missed this one. Thanks to Alan Taetle for pointing it out to me.  I remember seeing their booth at NRF, but it just looked like a bunch of tchotchke’s with an attitude. Needless to say, I missed this for my top 10 list, but in retrospect this likely would have gotten a top spot.
We’ve been hearing about digital wallets for a long time now. At CES last week, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs announced Swagg.
According to the PDF I found at Pixelatedeek.com, “Swagg enables smart, efficient and rewarding transactions on the go. Swagg allows users to purchase, share and exchange gift cards, receive and redeem offers, view loyalty card points or balances, share content and more – straight from the convenience of a mobile device.”
According to an article by Mike Freeman of the Union tribune, Paul Jacobs (Qualcomm’s CEO) said the mobile-gift-card portion of the Swagg platform should be available before the next holiday season.
There are quite a number of new players in the mobile payments space – Square, Mophie, FaceCash and more traditional players like VivoTech and Verifone. Swagg is a big play, but Qualcomm is a great company (as is their Atlanta-based subsidiary driving this – Firethorn) with massive resources and global reach.
Swagg has the potential to significantly impact the customer experience as it relates to loyalty and gift cards making them both mobile and social. Definitely one to watch.
There’s not much on the website yet, but here’s a slick video for your enjoyment.
Recently, I did a post listing the top 10 things that caught my eye at NRF. Here is more detail on number 10– Ikan.
Ikan is provides a scanner and thin web device designed for the kitchen. The idea is to scan items as you discard them to create your list which can be sent to a grocer, or accessed for your own use on the web.
On the web site, you can see the current model, but at NRF they were showing the next version which runs Android, allowing more interactive web access. Here is a short video of the demo I received at NRF.
The benefits for customers would be an easier way to create and maintain your list based on usage. This in addition to the web and application access demonstrated in the video. For retailers and manufacturers, there would be benefit in knowing about usage patterns (privacy policy permitting of course) prior to purchase. The retailer could also provide relevant offers for alternative products based on timing, a map through the store to pick up your items, etc.
Ikan has a number of challenges. First, the device itself sells for $399. That’s expensive for a consumer device. While it can access various applications and websites, I’d rather have a laptop or netbook to do those things. If I really want the scanner, there are options from around $I79.
Unfortunately for ikan, there is a even better option which is to use applications that allow barcode reading from my smartphone.  For $0.99, I can buy something like GroceryIQ for my iPhone. The integrated scanning capability (using RedLaser from Occipital) works great and it’s integrated right into the application allowing me to create my list.
What does this mean for Ikan? Unfortunately, as much as I liked the Ikan guys, I personally wouldn’t shell out $399 for the integrated device when I can have a laptop for the same amount. Grocery IQ did a great job of scanning and creating my list.
What does this mean for grocery retailers? Apps like GroceryIQ are going to some degree control the customer and the customer experience if you let them.  It’s time for grocery retailers to create their own mobile apps that add value to the customer in a way that differentiates the brand.
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