NATICK, Mass. — An essential peripheral to any enterprise's POS infrastructure, handheld POS scanners are continuing to leverage their core value propositions to address applications not only at the point of sale, but at the point of decision as well. Historically confined to a tethered/wired deployment, handheld scanners are increasingly configured with integrated wireless connectivity options that allow enterprises to empower all stakeholder groups (i.e., employees, customers, and partners) that they interact with throughout their retail location. As stakeholders become more comfortable and confident using these technologies, scanner suppliers are reporting increasing investment in their new mobile solutions, especially personal shopping systems.

"Although pilots and beta tests date back to the mid-1990s, personal shopping systems are starting to experience noteworthy adoption and deployment across the globe," said Rory Gardner, research analyst for VDC Research. "Handheld POS scanner suppliers continue to highlight Europe as the fastest growing region for this new breed of POS technology due to customer comfort with self-service technologies, and an ability to leapfrog legacy POS solutions in emerging country markets (i.e., Eastern Europe). By interacting with the consumer in-aisle, enterprises are given the opportunity to improve visibility, enhance the customer experience, reduce operating expenses and capture incremental revenue."

From an operations perspective, self-service solutions like personal shopping systems make sense for those retailers interested in obtaining greater visibility to the customer-purchase process. This is accomplished by providing mobile scanning and computing technologies that push relevant information to shoppers to improve their experience while capturing relevant information for the retailer. The process typically includes the following steps:

• In order for a consumer to obtain the personal shopping device he or she must first interact with the enterprise via a customer loyalty card - this provides relevant information to the retailer regarding the customer and his/her demographic
• Once the personal shopping device is released to the customer and they begin their shopping experience, enterprises have the ability to collect real-time information regarding consumers' preferences and requirements.
• Consumers have the ability to sync to past shopping lists, compare items, search product discounts, etc. At this stage, these devices can quickly morph into a platform for enterprises to introduce new marketing and promotional campaigns and activities.
• Finally, these solutions have the ability to expedite the completion of a transaction. By allowing consumers to bag and scan their products in-aisle, the only thing left is for them is to upload their shopping list and provide the appropriate payment.