Mobile shoppers want retailers to ditch cash registers for tablets

A report on mobile commerce has found some data that may the direction in which the retail shopping trend may go. The study said that 22% of smartphone-owning consumers have been to stores where tablets are being used as a point-of-sale (POS) device, with almost 6 in 10 of them believing that retailers using tablets are more innovative than those using only cash registers.

The final instalment of the Mobile Shopping Survey which was a three-part series on smartphone owners’ in-store retail experiences sponsored by AisleBuyer and it showed that 60% of smartphone owners think sales staff belong on the floor instead of behind a cash register. The study also tackled mobile payment methods and surprisingly, almost half (43%) of the respondents were familiar with the term ‘mobile wallet’ and only 12% are familiar with NFC. Given the new technology that is on the rise, those numbers will only increase over the next few years.

60% of the people who believed that staff would be more useful if they had a tablet because it would mean that their duties do not just start and stop at the checkout counter but will also extend to perhaps share product information, video demos, related products and perhaps a review or two. All these things would indeed make a shopping experience a lot more fulfilling and efficient.