C. Wonder, a new boutique in SoHo, is piloting in-store mobile devices featuring payments technology and the ability to cross-sell customers.

The boutique is among several retailers currently piloting a program that puts mobile devices in store associates hands that are equipped with mobile payments technology from VeriFone Systems Inc. and business-to-employee apps from Global Bay Mobile Technologies. Initial results from the pilots show the mobile devices help drive sales for retailers.

“Over the course of the last two years, we’ve seen the emergence of mobility at retail,” said Jennifer Miles, executive vice president of North America for VeriFone, San Jose, CA.

“On the consumer side, it is Isis, Google Wallet and all the cool stuff that is enabling mobile in-store payments,” she said.

“The other side is how retailers are adapting their business to meet the consumer in a much better way that helps drive better loyalty and provides cross-selling opportunities to make sure they are getting the biggest possible share of the consumer wallet.”

Shopper loyalty
VeriFone yesterday announced that it has acquired Global Bay. Together, the two companies are offering retailers an integrated suite of business-to-employee mobile applications for tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices

The goal is to provide retailers with solutions that deliver rich commerce experiences and open up new opportunities for merchants to engage their customers and generate increased profitability and shopper loyalty.

Store associates equipped with the VeriFone/Global Bay solution will be able to go up to customers in a store and, using a mobile device, look up what the customer has previously purchased, display what an ensemble looks like, find mix-and-match accessories, check out the customer and send the items to a specified address.

The solution is currently being piloted by several retailers with VeriFone expecting to sign up additional pilots over the next six months.

At the C. Wonder store in SoHo, there are no cash registers in the store. Instead, all the transactions go through the iPod touch devices used by store associates that have a VeriFone sleeve and the Global Bay software.

Initial results from the pilots suggest the solution can help drive sales.

For example, a women’s apparel store put mobile devices in the hands of cashiers at 300 stores in the spring and found that the stores equipped with the devices did an average of $20,000 more in merchandise sales per weekend compared with stores that that did not have the devices.

VeriFone provides tablet- and smartphone-based point-of-sale systems that enable retailers to equip employees with mobile devices that have a VeriFone attachment for processing payments.

Global Bay develops mobile applications that leverage retailers’ existing point-of-sale, e-commerce and other store systems. The company works with retailers across North America, Europe and Asia.

Sandeep Bhanote, CEO of Global Bay, has been appointed general manager of VeriFone’s Mobile Retail Systems business.

“Retailers now have an opportunity to buy a fully-integrated system with our payment technology, Global Bay’s software and the retailer’s point-of-sale that is an out-of-the-box package versus having to buy it piecemeal,” Ms. Miles said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York