Mobile Self Checkout

I had this idea while waiting in line to checkout at the grocery store the other day. It would be nice if there were a mobile application that would allow you to scan your purchases. Then when you get up to the cashier you would just hand them your phone, they would scan a QR code generated by the application and you would pay.

Tags: mobile, startup idea

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on April 13, 2011 at 9:04pm

That's exactly what I had initially envisioned, and it may work well for smaller stores. I'm thinking that larger stores like kroger, public, and target would not go for that solely from a loss-prevention stand point. Though, I could be wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Donelle Sanders Jr on April 13, 2011 at 7:41pm

Well what about a coupon scanner instead? You check off the coupons you want and hand your phone over to the cashier and it automatically discounts all the selected products. The phone would also have the ability to receive coupons from shops in the surrounding area that is relevant to the location that you are at, kind of like Foursquare.

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on April 13, 2011 at 9:07pm

Yeah, that could be huge. I did not know it, but apparently couponing is a big thing. My wife was watching some show that was following around people who do it as full-time job.

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Permalink Reply by Lee G Turley on April 14, 2011 at 10:26am

With coupons becoming hip again thanks to Groupon this may be an awesome app. Given the frugal nature of traditional couponers though, I wouldn't count on them having a smart phone-- or being too tech savvy in the first place.

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Permalink Reply by Ke Qin on April 14, 2011 at 12:06pm

"extreme couponing" is one of those shows on TV these days. peekaboomobile.com is one of those mobile coupon guys. i can't really comment on traditional couponers , but i think we all can agree couponing is a hassle and most pp dont want to bother with it. if we have an app that makes it easy to couponing, then it bring a segment of audience that's not the traditional type.

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Permalink Reply by Carol Rosenstein on April 15, 2011 at 4:03pm

there are several models for this and a handful of barcode/upc apps. think about making this more unique - maybe cross this idea with a groupon concept?or maybe look at the possibility of buidling & then selling to a company that provides the reporting on CPG sales to the maufacturers then you're providing a value add. but I would research to make sure ValPak or the other coupon insert companies aren't already going down this path now that Sunday newspapers and snail mail are losing circulation/business. You're golden if they haven't

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Permalink Reply by Calvin Froedge on November 5, 2011 at 10:24am

Lots of work here. Interfacing with all sorts of custom POS systems would be tough. You'd almost have to sell a small chain (Walmart would never outsource something like this) based on research as to what's "the most typical" supermarket and build the product around their needs.

Steps to validating this idea:

- Call the IT / marketing departments or store maangers from as many supermarkets / convenience stores as you possibly could, figure out what they're using for inventory, POS, and accounting. You might need to meet with them in person to get this. Chart out the relationships between each.

- Chris mentioned RFID. I imagine that if people are randomly walking out with items they purchased via their smart phones, theft control would become a big deal. Maybe you eliminate the need for the checkout girl, but you've added the need for either RFIDing everything in the store and connecting it to the security system or having someone stand at the door and check everybody (even more so than already).