Using your mobile device to make a shopping trip easier is one of the most in demand services from phone owners. “Mobile shopping” apps are being released far more often now, and are almost entirely targeted at the shoppers themselves. But PayMaster has just announced a mobile application for retailers, to help them turn any iPhone into a checkout.
What’s the story?
First things first: this new app is of no use to you unless you have employees wandering around with iPhones. The entire point of the service is that a shop-floor employee can use their company device to fully process a payment from someone on the shop floor.
How does it work?
PayMaster integrates this application with your Point-of-Sale system. Any transaction that runs on the PayMaster app is properly filed and processed through your existing system. An employee with the PayMaster app can ring up a sale, scan item barcodes, apply discounts and gift cards, or even add a customer-specific discount (to a pre-approved limit, of course) using the app. Customers can pay be credit card by “signing” the screen of the iPhone using their finger.
What this allows is for floor-staff to help a customer with their query, offer advice or fetch items and accept payment without having to leave the customer. The consumer never even has to queue at the checkout. Potentially, it could increase the speed of flow through a store hugely.
The launch partner for the app is shoe-store Skechers – which allows the attendant who brings someone their shoes to also act as the checkout counter.
What we think?
While I’m happy that a lot of mobile shopping services are becoming available, I’m even happier that retailer-side options are becoming more common. Having a price comparison app on your phone will only get you so far – but if the shop you’re in has proper mobile services built into their infrastructure, then you’ll see some real advantages.
Of course, this app would be better if it was available for more than just iPhone. There’s no particularly good reason to not have this on Android and BlackBerry as well.
