Mobile Barcode Scans: Pushed By E-Commerce, But Only Helping In-Store?
Written by Evan SchumanNovember 4th, 2009
E-Commerce sites have been pushing a series of mobile applets that can scan barcodes in-store. The idea is that consumers standing in a Target can scan the barcode of an item they're interested in purchasing and instantly see a list of online sites offering that item, along with its respective prices.
In theory, this will reveal if that retailer is charging way too much. It's an option that E-tailers love; they see themselves making lots of sales off of greedy physical stores, especially because the sites typically have lower overhead expenses and, as a result, can sometimes charge a lot less. But that's the opposite of what seems to be happening.
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2 Comments | Read Mobile Barcode Scans: Pushed By E-Commerce, But Only Helping In-Store?
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
November 5th, 2009 at 8:56 am
From the article:
“The trick for E-Commerce sites is to get those scans to happen outside the store, at some place where an E-Commerce purchase is easier for consumers to make.”
This would be the idea behind putting a barcode on an advertisement so that a person could scan the ad from the newspaper (or code on an on-line ad pop-up?), to find the best price. But the advertiser is wanting the person to buy from them. But I think it will be the voice-recognition app that makes this work – rather than a scan engine.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
“The trick for E-Commerce sites is to get those scans to happen outside the store…….” Do you think we need the bar-code reader then?? One can simply type the product name and search for it in different locations.