The document discusses how mobile technology is transforming the customer experience in retail. It finds that mobile point of sale (POS) implementations are expected to increase 373% over the next few years. Mobile devices allow retailers to provide enhanced customer service on the sales floor and enable transaction processing anywhere in the store. The survey also found that retailers are expanding their use of customer-facing mobile services like geolocation, personalized recommendations, and mobile loyalty identification to improve the shopping experience. Finally, mobile payments using near field communication (NFC) technology are growing, though widespread adoption may be inhibited by the long change cycle in the payments industry.

1. Gold Sponsors:
Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience
BRP SPECIAL REPORT
A supplemental report based on the findings from the
2015 POS/Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey
http://bit.ly/BRPSurvey

2. Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience | 2
increase in
mobile POS
implementations
in 2 years
Introduction
Mobile devices have become ubiquitous in the
lives of consumers, dramatically changing how
they shop. According to a November 2014
report by comScore,
Inc., 182 million
people in the U.S.
own smartphones,
which is a 74.9
percent mobile
market penetration.1
Having a constant,
virtually unlimited
amount of information at
their fingertips has
changed consumers’
shopping behavior and
elevated their expectation for customer
service. Consumers now use mobile devices to
research products, compare prices, complete
purchases online and increasingly to pay for in-
store purchases.
The proliferation of
tablets and mobile
phones has also
created new
opportunities for
retailers to enhance
customer service.
Putting mobile
devices in the hands
of store associates
enables inventory
look-up (enterprise-
wide) even for
products not
immediately available, supports the associate
providing assistance to the customer on the
selling floor and enables transaction
processing anywhere in the store.
To better understand the actual impact mobile
devices are having, Boston Retail Partners
(BRP) surveyed the top North American
1
ecomScore Reports December 2014 U.S. Smartphone
Subscriber Market Share, February 9, 2015,
retailers to explore the current state of how
mobile technology is shaping retail capabilities,
priorities and processes. BRP’s 2015
POS/Customer Engagement Benchmarking
Survey uncovered several key findings that
validate the significant impact of mobile
devices on store operations and how they are
changing retail as we know it.
This special report explores how mobile
devices are impacting retail in three key areas:
• Mobile POS – utilizing a mobile device
(either retailer or
customer-owned)
as the checkout
device
• Customer-facing
mobile services –
leveraging mobile
devices to enhance
the shopping
experience with expanded services
• Mobile payment – utilizing a customer’s
smartphone as a payment device
224%
increase in geolocation
use within 3 years
350%
more retailers
plan to
support NFC
payments by
October 2015
287%
BRP’s 2015
POS/Customer
Engagement
Benchmarking Survey
is available at:
http://bit.ly/BRPSurvey

3. Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience | 3
Mobile POS Enables the
Customer
Mobile point of sale (POS) enables the store
associate to complete a customer purchase on
the sales floor at the moment a buying decision
is made. Bringing the checkout process to the
customer at the moment she makes her
purchasing decision (and before she changes
her mind) also benefits the retailer. With
mobile POS devices, associates are no longer
chained to the checkout desk so they can
interact with the customer anywhere in the
store. Associates can also use mobile POS
devices to answer customer questions, locate
non-stocked or special order products and
provide product or store information.
Retailers understand the value of mobile POS
and are making it a key priority, as indicated by
BRP’s 2015 POS/Customer Engagement
Benchmarking Survey. When we asked some
of the top North American retailers what their
top priorities are for 2015, 24% reported mobile
POS as one of their top three priorities
(Exhibit 1). Respondants reported that 15%
have mobile POS already installed, 43% are
planning to implement in two years and
another 13% plan to implement at some point
beyond two years. This indicates a 373%
increase in the planned implementation of
mobile POS (from 15% today to 71%) over the
survey timeframe. The survey also reported
43% of retailers plan to allow customer-owned
mobile devices as POS in the future, with 19%
planning to make this leap in the next two
years (Exhibit 2).
There are different paths that retailers are
taking to implement some form of mobile POS,
as the application of mobile technology varies
5%
8%
13%
15%
18%
18%
21%
23%
26%
19%
13%
28%
49%
43%
41%
56%
10%
26%
26%
24%
16%
25%
18%
13%
18%
8%
18%
13%
5%
Customer-owned mobile device as POS
Cloud-based POS platform
A single commerce platform for store, mobile, and
web (i.e, Unified Commerce)
Omni-channel integration
Mobile POS
Advanced CRM/loyalty
Mobile solutions for associates
Thin client solution
Store-level BI
Middleware Layer/SOA
Exhibit 2
Point of Sale Plans
Implemented Implement in < 2 years Implement in > 2 years
24%
34%
44%
44%
63%
Mobile point of sale
Customer-facing
technology in the store
Real-time retail
Unified commerce platform
Payment security
Exhibit 1
Top Priorities

4. Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience | 4
greatly from retailer to retailer. In many cases,
retailers are replacing some of their traditional
“permanent” POS stations with mobile POS
options through tablets or smartphones. Some
are focusing on line-busting scenarios to
reduce front-end traffic and improve customer
throughput. Others seek to enhance the
customer’s experience with personalized
mobile client interactions. In these situations,
mobile POS is definitely changing the way
associates sell and the way customers shop.
While retailers realize the importance of mobile
POS and are working to install these
capabilities, mobile POS was also reported as
one of retailers’ biggest challenges, with 33%
of survey respondents indicated that enabling
mobile solutions was a top challenge for 2015.
Some of the challenges noted by survey
respondents planning to deploy mobile devices
for POS are:
• Choosing the right mobile technology in the
ever-changing landscape of vendors and
considering the limited device support by
some software vendors
• Process engineering to enable the use of a
single device for multiple functions
• Updating back-end systems to support
mobile point of sale capabilities
• Understanding the total cost of ownership
including the impact of battery life and
peripheral expenses
• Quantifying the benefits of capturing lost
sales and increased customer satisfaction
While there are challenges to deploying mobile
POS, it is becoming an imperative retail
change that is being driving by customer
expectations.
Customer-facing Mobile
Services meet Real-time
Retail
Customers have access to more information
and tools than ever before and are
accustomed to shopping online on a daily
basis. Now they want that same digital
experience in the store. Savvy retailers
understand this and are leveraging customer-
facing technology as part of the overall
customer experience. Some areas where
retailers are expanding their customer-facing
mobile services include (Exhibit 3):
• Geolocation – With geolocation
technology, customers shop with greater
knowledge of their immediate
3%
5%
8%
16%
16%
19%
19%
24%
26%
3%
14%
24%
13%
22%
30%
22%
38%
29%
32%
54%
38%
48%
47%
46%
46%
41%
32%
37%
18%
Mobile wallet
Geolocating
Personalized recommendations
Mobile loyalty identification
Smartphone app
Prior purchase visibility
Shopping list/wish list
Product information (price, location, availability,
Mobile coupons, specials, promotions
Digital catalog
Exhibit 3
Customer-facing Mobile Services
Implemented and working well Implemented but needs improvement Implement within 3 years

5. Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience | 5
surroundings. Users can search within a
given radius to find specific items, as well
as connect directly with the retailer’s
Website and online inventory. This
technology can also be leveraged to
improve the customer experience by
offering real-time promotions and providing
assistance locating a retailer’s store. Based
on the POS/Customer Engagement
Benchmarking Survey, 224% more retailers
plan to use geolocating within three years.
• Personalized recommendations –
Understanding the customer’s individual
taste, shopping history, and even her
friends’ opinions allows the retailer to offer
her personalized promotions and shopping
suggestions. This is the future of retail.
165% more retailers plan to offer
personalized recommendations via
customer-facing mobile technology within
three years.
• Mobile loyalty identification –
Identification of a loyal customer via a
mobile device is an easy way to identify
when she walks in the store and offer her
personalized services. 224% more retailers
plan to implement mobile loyalty
identification within three years.
Utilizing customer-facing technology is a
natural outcome from the proliferation of
mobile devices. As customers have become
more comfortable and proficient with utilizing
mobile technology and researching information
on their own, retailers need to provide its
associates the ability to access more
information and services in the store to
enhance the customer shopping experience
and stimulate more sales.
Mobile Payments are Hot!
Mobile payment technology has returned to the
news recently since Apple’s adoption of near
field communications (NFC) technology into
their proprietary Apple Pay app. With this
addition to the latest iPhones, Apple has
helped jump-start the mobile payment arena in
the United States.
Mobile payments using NFC is a proven
technology and has been widely accepted as a
form of payment in parts of Asia for years.
However, in the U.S. the mobile payment field
is still quite muddy and there seem to be more
questions than answers when it comes to
identifying which mobile payment solutions will
be the frontrunners in this growing arena. A
recent study by Strategy Analytics’ predicts
that NFC-enabled mobile handsets will account
for $130B in worldwide payments by 2020.2
NFC technology and mobile payments appear
to be here to stay and will continue to grow and
influence the retail industry. However, one of
the major inhibitors to adoption has been a
very long change cycle in the payment area.
Some progressive retailers have already
invested in NFC technology when purchasing
new payment terminals as part of their EMV
upgrades. However, a large number have not
and quite often the cost of upgrading an
existing unit can be four times the cost of
initially purchasing the units with the
technology. Additionally, the time to implement
and test changes such as NFC payments
generally range between three to six months.
Like most significant changes in retail,
consumers will drive the shift to mobile
payments. There are several mobile
2
Mobile Contactless Payments (2001-2020), Strategy
Analytics, Publication Date: Dec 16 2014
3%
3%
5%
8%
13%
8%
8%
13%
15%
13%
30%
18%
5%
13%
13%
28%
35%
18%
31%
Bitcoin
CurrentC
Softcard
Google Wallet
Mobile payment
in app
ApplePay
PayPal
Exhibit 4
Payment Types
Already accept
Plan to accept
within 12 months
Plan to accept
within 1-3 years

6. Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience | 6
alternatives that will share a piece of the
mobile payment space over the next few years,
including PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay
and CurrentC. From these alternatives, there
will be winners and losers, and perhaps new
alternatives will emerge. While Apple Pay has
the iconic name and many faithful followers,
the number of retailers able to accept the NFC
technology that drives Apple Pay has been
limited by a scarcity of payment terminals that
can accept contactless payment. According to
our recent POS/Customer Engagement
Benchmarking Survey, 10% of retailers support
NFC payments today and an additional 35% of
retailers plan to support NFC by October 2015
(which is a key deadline for EMV). This
indicates a trend towards the implementation
of payment terminals capable of accepting
NFC payments.
Survey respondents accept PayPal more than
any other alternative payment type, with 13%
already accepting it and more than 50%
planning to accept it within three years
(Exhibit 4). While only 8% of the respondents
accept Apple Pay for payment today, an
additional 48% plan to accept it within three
years. There is the potential for Apple to do for
mobile payments what it did for music with
iTunes – make it a ubiquitous app. CurrentC,
from the consortium of retailers known as
MCX, does not seem to have the same
support, as only 21% plan to accept this
payment type within three years. While the
pros and cons of each of these payment types
can be debated, many retailers are adopting a
wait and see approach.
There will be exponential growth in mobile
payments in the U.S. over the next five years.
Retailers are continuing to invest in the
hardware required for mobile payments and
the fact that consumers are faced with
significant process changes with EMV that
impact convenience and speed will both drive
the advancement of mobile payments. There
will likely still be more than one single mobile
payment type. However, the few payment
providers who master simplicity, convenience,
security and simple integration for retailers will
come out on top.
Mobile Remains the Newest
Frontier
Mobile POS and customer engagement
technology remain relatively immature from an
adoption perspective, while traditional POS
has had 40+ years to mature. The survey
results make it clear that mobile technology
and customer engagement are still early in
3%
5%
8%
16%
16%
19%
19%
24%
26%
3%
14%
24%
13%
22%
30%
22%
38%
29%
32%
54%
38%
48%
47%
46%
46%
41%
32%
37%
18%
Mobile wallet
Geolocating
Personalized recommendations
Mobile loyalty identification
Smartphone app
Prior purchase visibility
Shopping list/wish list
Product information (price, location, availability,
Mobile coupons, specials, promotions
Digital catalog
Exhibit 5
Customer-facing Mobile Services
Implemented and working well Implemented but needs improvement Implement within 3 years

7. Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience | 7
their evolution. This is evident in the results
that show across categories the number of
mobile services that have been implemented
but still need improvement (Exhibit 5). There
remain many areas where innovation and
investment can improve the mobile arena.
Conclusion
There has been a huge technology shift in the
past few years and mobile technologies in the
hands of consumers and retail associates have
been the driver. Mobile capabilities allow a
retailer to break down the barrier between the
online digital environment and the physical
store. Mobile is driving retailers to upgrade and
replace technology to keep ahead of their
competitors’ customer experience offerings
and to try to keep up with their very informed
and technology-savvy customers. Some of the
areas impacted include:
• Mobile devices as point of sale – utilizing
a mobile device as the checkout device
Nearly 300% more retailers plan to
deploy mobile POS in the next two years
• Customer-facing mobile devices to offer
personalized customer service –
leveraging mobile devices to enhance the
shopping experience
Approximately 200% more retailers plan
to use geolocation within three years
• Mobile payments as alternative payment
method – utilizing a customer’s
smartphone as a payment device
350% more retailers plan to support
NFC payments by October 2015
This area is clearly the new frontier that will
transform retailers’ customer engagement
model, operational budgets, in-store
procedures and layouts. The one constant in
the mobile space is that it continues to evolve
rapidly and should be a significant part of a
retailer’s strategy.

8. Mobile Technology – Transforming the Customer Experience | 8
About Boston Retail Partners
Boston Retail Partners (BRP) is an innovative and independent retail management consulting firm
dedicated to providing superior service and enduring value to our clients. BRP combines its
consultants' deep retail business knowledge and cross-functional capabilities to deliver superior
design and implementation of strategy, technology, and process solutions. The firm's unique
combination of industry focus, knowledge-based approach, and rapid, end-to-end solution deployment
helps clients to achieve their business potential.
BRP’s consulting services include:
Strategy Business Intelligence Business Process Optimization
Point of Sale (POS) Mobile POS Store Systems and Operations
CRM Unified Commerce Customer Experience & Engagement
Order Management eCommerce Merchandise Management
Supply Chain Information Technology Private Equity
For more information or assistance on any of the topics covered in this white paper, please contact:
To download the 2015 POS/Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey please go to:
www.bostonretailpartners.com/resources/2015-poscustomer-engagement-benchmarking-survey/
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Brian Brunk, Principal
(405) 590-0542
bbrunk@bostonretailpartners.com
Ken Morris, Principal
(617) 880-9355
kmorris@bostonretailpartners.com
Walter Deacon, Principal
(781) 337-2060
wdeacon@bostonretailpartners.com
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(617) 899-7543
pkramer@bostonretailpartners.com
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(330) 289-3342
kfischer@bostonretailpartners.com
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(916) 673-7757
dnaumann@bostonretailpartners.com