The retailer’s iPhone app allows shoppers to scan the items they want to buy and use a generated barcode.
Walmart has just announced that it intends to broaden the use of its iPhone based self checkout program that uses QR codes, so that it will now become available at 40 locations within the Denver area.
The app generates a barcode that represents all of the scanned items in the customer’s cart.
The iPhone application functions by allowing customers to use their phones to scan the barcodes on all of the items that they wish to purchase in the store, as they place them into their shopping carts. When the customer has finished adding items, QR codes are generated by the app. Those are brought to a self-checkout terminal at the stores, where they are scanned in order to complete the purchasing transaction.
This Scan & Go feature using QR codes is already being tested in a handful of stores and will now be added to more.
Forty stores in and around Denver started using the program over the weekend. The company has been testing several different mobile commerce strategies within its stores, including QR codes. Locations where mcommerce efforts have been made include San Jose, California, Atlanta, Georgia, Portland, Oregon, and in Northwest Arkansas.
The Scan & Go iPhone app is designed to allow customers to shorten the time that it takes to check out, as the products are being scanned as they are taken off the store shelves to be placed in the cart. The app works by creating a complete list of all of the scanned items and representing those totals with QR codes once the “Done Shopping” button is tapped.
Once the QR codes are scanned at the self checkout terminal, the shopper is given his or her options for making payments in order to complete the transaction and actually purchase the items. Walmart has been pouring a great deal of money and effort into its self checkout services and options. It has been working with NCR, the checkout terminal vendor, since October 2012. It is now predicting that by the end of this year, there will be 10,000 self checkout terminals within 1,200 different locations across the country.
