StoreXperience – mobile barcode application aims to keep you in-store

StoreXperience is a new mobile barcode application, that scans retail items through your cameraphone. There’s a million applications for consumers based on barcode scanning, but StoreeXperience might be the first aimed at the retailer. The app works by providing shoppers with information about the store they are actually in when they use it.

So, if you scan a product in a retail outlet, StoreXperience will inform you of any sales or deals in-store for that product and for related products. It also provides contextual information about special offers that might interest you, and allows you to reserve products as you wander the aisles.

The application is currently still in beta testing.

From the release:

“The only place where CRM (customer resource management) doesn’t really have a presence is in-store,” said StoreXperience CEO François Silvain. “And those systems that are there are point-of-purchase systems that happen at the end of a visit and are aimed at bringing a customer back.”

What we think?

This was something I had genuinely failed to consider – the fact that retailers would despise applications like Pongr and Shop Savvy, which let users run price comparisons on any item in stock. These kinds of apps are ultimately more likely to make people leave your store than anything. With StoreXperience, in-store deals and adverts can be pushed to users in a less intrusive way.

The problem, of course, is that this isn’t the real solution to the problem. You can’t stop people using price-comparison services. You just can’t. You can make it easier for them to find your special offers, but if someone else has better prices there’s nothing you can do to make people stay.