We’ve written earlier this year how the iPad is replacing the cash register at smaller shops. Now retail giants such as Lowe’s and Home Depot are dumping the traditional till for the tablet.
“Everyone is looking at the Apple technology line,” Sandeep Bhanote, CEO of mobile retail expert Global Bay tells Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital. “It’s an Apple world in retail, although that could change next year,” he said.
The iPad is ringing up sales and helping home-improvement customers find the perfect faucet or paint style. Last week, Lowe’s said it was rolling out 42,000 iOS-based devices in its U.S. and Canadian stores. “Leveraging Apple’s iPhone technology, our employees will check inventory availability, access how-to videos and utilize lowes.com from the aisles of the store,” CEO Robert Niblock told reporters.
This comes after rival Home Depot in 2010 said it would 30,000 First Phone mobile devices in its stores. First Phones were described by the Atlanta Constitution as an “amped-up BlackBerry.” However, the retail mobile battle appears to have swung Apple’s way.
Along with clothing retailers Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters, surfer shop Pacific Sunwear is outfitting 300 stores with iPads with plans to double that number by 2012. Like other retailers, Pacific Sunwear employees will use the iPads to help customers find items, place an order, take payments and initiate shipping. “The next phase is introducing a commerce component,” Bhanote says. What’s been customers’ reaction to the iPads? In one case, order size has jumped 12 percent, according to the ATD article.
But cash registers turned apps is not the only way iPads are transforming retailing. As Apple transforms its retail stores based on its Apple Store 2.0 design, iPads are integral, appearing as interactive displays of products.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
32 responses to “Apple’s iPad Replacing Cash Registers at Major Retailers”
I wonder how does the read credit cards?
Usually with a dongle that transforms the encoding on the magnetic strip to sound via the headphone/mic jack. The top left picture is the Square App. They’ll send you the hardware for free if you sign up. Or you can buy it in an Apple store for 10 bucks. I think it is limited to the U.S. and Canada though. That is just one solution.
I just p a i d $21.87 for an i P a d 2-64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasonîc Lumîx GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS.I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
Here is the website we use to get it all from, BídsFírst.Com
It also might not run credit cards through the iOS device, but through a regular terminal.
Just a plug through the 20 pin connector port, that runs to a credit card swiper. I have a small one that plugs into my iphone, theres a company called “SquaredUp” that processes the credit card transactions for you, all you need is a internet connection, Edge or 3G.
I like Square (squareup.com) but it is really for small stores with not a lot of merchandise. Takes too long to enter product info and no barcode scanner capability (yet). If it solved these two issues I’d totally love it.
,. I päid $21.41 for an íPad 2.64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasoníc Lumíx GF 1 Cámera that we got for $38.79 there arriving tomorrow by UP S.I will never pay such expensive retail príces in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LCD T V to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
Here is the website we use to get it all from, bit.ly/BidShop
They’re attacking their old foe IBM again. I always see the register computers as IBMs but i guess apple is replacing ’em now.
I thought these would be perfect replacements for many of the ridiculous POS systems in place today, which are so clunky they make Desqview look great.
BTW. Where are all those anti-Apple trolls who swear the iPad is only a consumer device. Rather quiet.
Final blow to OS/2?
Specialty’s, a chain of fresh food to-go restaurants in California (focused on the office worker bees), uses a brilliant interface on consumer self-serve iPads with credit card readers attached. It’s easy to order, edit, save favorites – and rescues Specialty’s from long lines or having to hire a large front counter staff. They save thousands of dollars and consumers like having control over their ordering process. Kudos to them for this brilliant system.
tinyurl.com/2df4ccp
C’mon, the Apple store is using them (they actually have a very limited inventory)
A number of small retailers near me use iMac POS systems, so this is a logical step – less than half the cost. Since POS is really just a database, the only questions are how much info these can hold, and how easily they can communicate with a server, if necessary.
Interesting…..
tinyurl.com/2df4ccp
There’s a restaurant in Atlanta that has ipads at the tables with the menu. You find what you want, you place your order and it is brought out. No more folks coming to see if you are ready, coming back in a few minutes cause you weren’t.
I’ve also seen a lot of ipads and ipod touches at flea markets and farmer’s markets.
The picture shows cashdrawers, thermal receipt printers, scanners, etc plugged in the iPad. Since the iPad doesn’t have any USB ports, how exactly is it interfacing to all those devices? In addition to that, most retailers have a customer credit terminal/PIN pads (the earphone device is not PCI compliant and can’t be used by major retailers) MICR readers, scales, customer facing displays etc, all running off of powered USB ports on the PoS terminal.
The article confuses the “traditional till” with other services that the iPad IS good at – running tutorial videos, checking stock, etc – all stuff that can be done using a simple web interface. But I guarantee Lowes and Home Depot are NOT planning on replacing their PoS systems with iPads.
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After a lot of search I found a store with the name of ToysDaddy.com. they help me to buy my gift, very supportive people are there.i really appreciate their services ,I strongly recommend This online toys store
Ipads really make life easier and cool! as long as installed and used properly, they can benefit many people…