SAP brings checkout to mobiles

 

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Posted on 5 Mar 2008 at 11:53

SAP is trialling a new technology for mobile phones which it hopes will make the weekly shop less of a chore.

Dubbed the "Shopper Aide" the technology works through a mobile phone. Customers simply enter their shopping list into the application and next time they enter a shop, the software calculates the location of the items and the best route to them. It then downloads an aisle map for the customer to follow, as well as giving them the total cost.

Where the customer has entered a generic search term, rather than a specific brand, Shopper Aide will bring up a list of items in the aisle, as well as the costs.

The technology will also allow the phone to act as a checkout system, utilising the phone's mobile camera to scan the items as they're taken from the shelf and charging a linked account.

SAP is trialling the technology with German supermarkets which already employ its radio frequency identification tags for tracking items. However, due to the cost of the radio tags, SAP claims it could be some time before we see a mass market roll out of such products.

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Author: Stuart Turton in Hannover