The store of the future
Dec 09 2008
Retail Wrap >>

The Mobile Shopping Assistant (MSA) is an application for mobile phones which allows customers to scan in their purchases while shopping. The MSA will make long queues at the checkout a thing of the past. "Almost every consumer these days owns a mobile phone and uses it as a matter of course," argues Dr. Cordes. "Today’s high-performance mobile phones are ideally suited for mobile shopping." The MSA was developed in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom. Customers can use the device to find specific products in the store or to call up product information. 

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) - automatic product recognition technology is an intrinsic part of the store’s quality assurance system for meat products prepared in the in-house butchery. These are fitted with Smart Chips and displayed in the Smart Freezer, which monitors stock levels and the best-before dates on all the items. Every time a customer removes a product, integrated RFID readers register this automatically.

Interactive terminals and tasting stations includes interactive skin care Information Terminal, wine tasting counter dispensed hygienically into testing cups at the push of a button, two robots talk to customers and, on request, show them the store’s cutting-edge technologies and novel concepts.

New checkout systems - Pay by Fingerprint system. Customers merely need to place their finger onto a specially developed fingerprint scanner to pay for their purchases – without the need for any signature or PIN.

Previously the METRO Group tested and now uses technologies such as the Smart Scales that automatically identify fruit and vegetables, and Self-Checkouts where customers have the option of carrying out the entire checkout process themselves.

The next feature to be tested will be Pay by Wireless with mobile phones. For this purpose, METRO Group and Real, use so-called Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology for the short-range transmission of data between devices. A first long-term test with selected consumers is being planned.

Adapted from Source: www.future-store.org, 28 May & 10 September 2008