$$ TECHNOLOGY

Gadgets Unchain Cashiers: Some Retailers Use Mobile Devices to Ring Up Purchases Right on the Sales Floor

By DANA MATTIOLI

Apple Inc.$\text{'}$s gadgets have made life difficult for some makers of digital cameras or GPS devices. Are cash$-$register makers next? More retailers are arming their staff with iPod Touches coupled with a special scanning device that can be used to check out customers. The aim is to make sure sales don't walk out the door because consumers tire of waiting in line and to make more productive use of space that had been reserved for cash registers. Customers get served quicker and have a better shopping experience. Spend less to purchase and maintain registers, which often run on old technology that requires more repair.

Retailers, like Urban Outfitters, provide staff with mobile devices. "There's no reason why an iPod Touch or an iPad shouldn't replace an actual register," says Calvin Hollinger, chief information and logistics officer at Urban Outfitters Inc., which started sending devices to each of its $378$ U$.$S$.$ Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People stores in May. The hand$-$held devices are able to scan barcodes and swipe credit cards for payments. Receipts can be emailed to customers or sent to an in$-$store printer. Customers wanting to pay with cash would still have to use a register.

Mobile checkout is still in its very early stages. Last fall, only $6\%$ of retailers in a survey by the National Retail Federation said they used mobile point$-$of$-$sale devices. But half of the respondents at the time said they planned to adopt such devices over the next year and a half. Urban Outfitters put two mobile checkout systems in each of its stores to start, and says it is using iPods to complete $10\%$ of its transactions. More will roll out after the holidays, and Mr$.$ Hollinger says they could easily be carried by $80\%$ of the company's sales staff by next year. The iPod Touch, with an add$-$on case for scanning, costs about $$500,$ or one$-$fifth the price of a traditional cash register, Mr$.$ Hollinger says. The company will keep a few cash registers around, but probably won't be in the market for the machines when it opens new stores. Instead, Mr$.$ Hollinger says, Urban will likely redistribute the cash registers in its existing stores as they get bumped by more mobile devices. Cash$-$register stations will be remodeled to make more room for hot sellers with high mark$-$ups like jewelry and accessories.

The change is not without challenge. Beyond the cost of purchasing devices, Companies will shoulder the cost of outfitting stores with Wi$-$Fi$.$ Retailers also have to cope with other kinks$$like sensors on clothing and the trickiness of wrapping and bagging items without a checkout counter.

$1.$ Urban Outfitters$$ choice to pursue a mobile point$-$of$-$sale business initiative by switching out cash registers for Ipods and Ipads represents what type of general business strategy $($i$.$e$.,$ Concentration, Internal growth, External growth, or Disinvestment$)?$ What are their specific business objectives?

$2.$ Which strategic training initiatives should Urban Outfitters$$ training function be pursuing to support this business strategy?

$3.$ Brainstorm examples of specific training programs, activities, or structures that trainers at Urban Outfitters should institute to support the initiatives identified above.