The future of retail is mobile

It seems that the humble mobile app is gaining traction in the offline world, as American home improvement chain Lowe’s have announced plans to replace their checkout scanners with some 42,000 iPhones, according to Mobile Commerce Daily.

The idea behind the radical switch is to enable Lowe’s staff to provide a better service to their customers, through on-the-spot inventory checks, access to helpful information and how-to videos, and eventually handling credit card transactions.

This is a bold move, and an exciting one too, as it exploits mobile for its greatest strength — mobility — rather than just another way to reach an audience.

With companies liked Square enabling anyone to take credit card payments via iOS devices, it’ll be great to see smaller retailers making this technology work to their advantage soon.