Mobile checkouts in retail - secured by RFID

Global

February 22 2018

The checkout is still one of the most frustrating touch-points shoppers experience in a retail store, as this is often connected with queuing and tedious procedures. It is a given fact that offline retailers lose a lot of money at the POS, as consumers frequently abandon their full shopping baskets. For retailers, this is a clear lost opportunity. Meanwhile, shoppers get used to easy and convenient ways of paying from the online world, where it is often possible to check out with just “one-click”.

To improve the checkout process and make the entire shopping experience more seamless, many retailers currently research and test new payment possibilities and services for their customers. However, many retailers also wonder how these new payment methods will affect their shrinkage. Here, RFID technology enables secured mobile payments, either employee-assisted or on the mobile device of the customers themselves.

A mobile payment application can run on the retailer’s or on a consumer’s mobile device

By enabling employee-assisted mobile payments, retailers make it very easy for their employees to help customers checking out items anywhere in the store, therewith freeing up valuable floor space in their stores. By enabling mobile payments on the mobile device of the customer, retailers can provide customers with the possibility to check out items without any need to search for a store employee.

Both options have one thing in common: mobile payment solutions do not work well with hard tags as there is no smooth way to remove the hard tags. Therefore, you need a smart solution – “EAS in the Cloud”– to secure merchandise in the store.

RFID enables EAS in the Cloud

RFID has many advantages, such as identifying out-of-stock situations in a store by easy and frequent stock counts. But the technology can also be used for EAS purposes to keep track of the status of an item, e.g. if a specific item is sold or not. Together with the payment process, the deactivation of the RFID label takes place in a cloud database (e.g. iD Cloud) by changing the product status from "unsold" to "sold". Whenever an item leaves the store, the RFID-based EAS antennas at the store exit query the cloud database and will give an alarm in case an "unsold" product leaves the store.

Benefits

Eliminates queues and drives higher conversions.
Customers enjoy a rich and seamless shopping experience.
Store staff focused on customer experience and engagement.
Free space in the store that is wasted with huge and inefficient check-out counters.

Experience mobile check-outs

Want to learn more about “EAS in the Cloud” and see it live in action? Visit us at EuroCIS 2018 (booth 10A02) in Düsseldorf.

RFID business expert

Tom Vieweger