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Big US retailers adopting Apple products: Say goodbye to the cash register

by Steven Sande Aug 23rd 2011 at 3:30PM

Earlier today TUAW reported on how one New York City restaurant has adopted the iPad as a menu and point of sale system replacement. Now All Things D is reporting that Apple products -- predominantly the iPad -- are being purchased in droves by major retailers across the country.

Home improvement chain Lowes is reportedly deploying 42,000 handheld devices to stores in the U.S. and Canada. Other major deployments have been announced by rival Home Depot, Nordstrom, and Urban Outfitters. As noted by All Things D's Tricia Duryee, some of the retailers haven't spilled the beans on what devices they're actually fielding, but it's anticipated that they'll be Apple devices -- iPhones, iPads, or iPod touches.

While the devices can be easily set up to accept payments, many of the retailers are initially using the devices for customer service use cases: looking up answers to customer questions or checking availability of products.

Pacific Sunwear, AKA PacSun, will be rolling out iPads in 300 of its stores, and plans to increase the distribution of the tablets to up to 600 more locations by next year. PacSun is using an application by developer Global Bay to assist customers in ordering items that are out of stock in the stores.

Global Bay CEO Sandeep Bhanote mentioned that one retailer it helped has seen a 12 percent increase in average order transaction when customers receive service from associates carrying in-store Apple devices. For PacSun, the iPads are anticipated to let store associates close five more transactions a day -- and that's more than enough to cover the cost of the equipment and software.

How about you, TUAW readers? Other than at Apple Store retail locations, have you started seeing a lot of Apple products at your favorite retailer? Let us know in the comments.



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Earlier today TUAW reported on how one New York City restaurant has adopted the iPad as a menu and point of sale system replacement....
 

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Dr. J

Tin Drum, an Atlanta fast-casual restaurant has 3 iPad ordering terminals and has seen an 18% increase in average check size. Also interesting is the fact that they are using the terminals to deliver healthy food suggestions at the point of ordering! http://usablehealth.com/topic/blog/

August 28 2011 at 5:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Foxglove9

JCPenney has iPads in their jewelry department for customer orders.

August 24 2011 at 4:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chad

I agree, Apple devices are popping up everywhere and are starting to change the way we do business. I created an app for the iPhone/iPod to verify the age of customers entering bars, clubs or anywhere that requires a business owner to check the age of its clients. I currently work at a hotel in South Beach and we are using the app to check people trying to enter the club in the hotel. Other hotels and clubs in the area are starting to use the app running on an iPod as well. The app is called JoJo ID and is available on iTunes. Visit www.jojoid.com for more info.

August 24 2011 at 11:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
AMR

Wait what? Close 5 more transactions a day? In the history of Mall shipping how often are paying customers told to leave because they are closing and we are out of registers. If anything stores have too many registers (sometimes 6 or more) and don't have enough staff.

August 23 2011 at 7:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to AMR's comment
Steven Sokulski

I think you maybe misunderstood what closing additional sales means in this instance. It would seem to me that they hope to close 5 sales of potentially out-of-stock or special order merchandise that would have otherwise had the customers leaving the store to (hopefully) order the item online.

By being able to complete the sale for the customer right in store, this system will minimize the possibility of that sale going up in smoke.

August 24 2011 at 12:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Neil III

hmmm maybe next we'll see the iPad start popping into JCPenny's soon to do to apple's retail executive Ron Johnson becomes the head of the company...

August 23 2011 at 5:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vertigo

It's cool that Lowes is going to use Apple devices, but who will operate them? I can never find an employee when I need one, and the checkout has more self-service lanes than traditional ones anymore.

August 23 2011 at 4:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
peter kennedy

umm...sounds sleek.
http://www.theidiotslife.in/2011/08/reality-about-relationships.html

August 23 2011 at 3:59 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
Dave P

Got checked out by a handheld device at Home Depot several months ago. It was not Apple -- some kind of proprietary bar code scanner w/ credit card swiper built in. Printed a receipt from mini printer clipped to the person's belt. It was very convenient to not have to wrangle my BBQ grill through the aisle.

August 23 2011 at 3:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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