Grocery And Convenience Store IT News For VARs – June 19, 2014

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

This week in the news, IHL report looks at mobile POS, now a $7 billion global business. Also in the news, an article details a “Talking Prescription” device for the visually impaired. And FMI Connect previews the grocery store of the future and provides advice for “balancing physical retail with a digital world.”

Mobile POS “Reaching Escape Velocity”

Mobile retail commerce is now a $7 billion global business, and IHL has a new  report available, “Mobile POS: Reaching Escape Velocity — All Systems Go,” that examines the current state of mobile POS, the adoption rates of the various retail verticals, and the shipment and installed base details by type of device and provides forecasts for shipments and installed base of these devices, and estimates of the impact that these devices will have on the use of traditional POS hardware.

Talking Prescription Devices Offered To Those With Visual Impairments

Drug Store News reported that Walgreens is the first in the industry to offer an exclusive talking prescription device, called the Talking Pill Reminder, at its retail locations chainwide. The device attaches to prescription containers and will be available at no cost to pharmacy customers who are blind or who have visual impairments. The Talking Pill Reminder is a programmable recording that can hold the prescription medication label information, and also has an audible alarm to remind patients when to take a medication.

FMI Connect Offers A Preview Of The Grocery Store Of The Future

This article from the Progressive Grocer previews what the grocery stores of tomorrow might look like as portrayed by a Food Marketing Institute exhibit that opened June 18 at the 2014 FMI Connect at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Although the exhibit demonstrated a number of changes, including the increasing traction of online grocery sales, RETF research offers a ray of sunshine to the brick-and-mortar retailer: 83 percent of consumers consider traditional grocers their “go-to” for the foreseeable future. 

Physical Retail in a Digital World: Advice from the FMI

This article from the Progressive Grocer provides some advice for brick-and-mortar grocers to compete in the digital world from Marc de Speville, founder of London-based Strategic Food Retail, regarding strategies that retailers can implement to adapt, during his presentation, “Technology Trends Changing the Shopping Experience,” at FMI Connect in Chicago. Among the challenges they face are increased market fragmentation, extra costs outweighing extra sales, the continuous needs for extra space, and the unsustainable zone pricing model.  Yet opportunities also exist, especially by providing a shopping experience that cannot be replicated online.

Grocery And Convenience Store IT Talking Points

According to Convenience Store News, Flash Foods launched a new app in October and just six months later, more than 33,000 people had downloaded it. The app includes a store locator, fuel pricing, mobile coupons, and mobile payments for its GoBlue loyalty payment card holders both at the pump and in-store., and works at any of the 172 Flash Foods convenience stores in Georgia and north Florida. The retailer has the ability to pull reports on demographic information to see who's in the app at any given time in real-time.

For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Grocery and Convenience Store Tech Center.