In-Store Dilemma with Mobile Tech

Pop quiz, people. A customer walks into your store. She has her smartphone out, web browsing on, price-comparison apps and a whole world of online competitors ready and waiting. What do you do? What do you do?

Home Depot has decided to jump into the personal computing arms race with customers by supplying their employees with 10,000 handheld devices, which will be rolled out initially as 5 devices to each store. The devices, according to RetailWire (below), will check inventory availability both in-store and across the chain, have access to incoming inventory not yet at the store, and the ability to contact other employees both in the store and across the chain, potentially to reserve inventory a customer is looking for. With the addition of a payment capture attachment, a customer could also potentially pay for their purchases in the aisle, a la Apple Stores.

I feel for any CIO facing this kind of decision - it's not as easy as it seems. When you cast it in the light of trying to keep up with customers, it becomes a question of ante: what are you willing to do as a retailer to stay competitive, given how consumers are using technology to reshape or enhance their shopping experiences? Ah, if only it were that simple.

The problem with handhelds is that they are infrastructure. On their own, they do not provide value. It's only through the addition of applications that they deliver something interesting.  As a retailer, you have to find the right combination of applications that justify investing in the infrastructure, and yet are also not so complicated that they add risk to the implementation. Home Depot has opted for inventory management and employee communication, but as you'll see from the comments below, that's either too little, the wrong focus, or overall the wrong priority. Wrestling agreement out of the organization as to where to start can often be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to in-store tech investments - right after the big initial price tag.

There are supporters too - voices below that are happy to see Home Depot invest in anything that could potentially help the customer experience in stores. But even these voices miss a crucial point: once these devices are in stores, what next? The hurdle has been passed - the infrastructure is there. Now the only question is, what else can you do with it? The answer is - lots! If you play your cards right. I can promise one thing: customers are already way ahead of you.

Read on for the RetailWire discussion...