Retail in Asia

In Trends

The in-store tech dilemma

US retail giant Home Depot has decided to jump into the personal computing arms race with customers by supplying its employees with 10,000 handheld devices, which will be rolled out initially as 5 devices to each store. According to RetailWire, the devices check inventory availability in-store and across the chain, have access to incoming inventory not yet at the store, and can be used to contact employees in the store and across the chain, to reserve inventory a customer is looking for. With the addition of a payment-capture attachment, a customer could also pay for their purchases in the aisle, as is currently possible in the country’s Apple Stores.