Nordstrom & Home Depot See Sales Boost from Mobile POS – So What?

Forbes has a great article about how Nordstrom and Home Depot have adopted mobile POS devices enabling employees to check out customers anywhere in the store. Employees at Apple’s retail stores have been armed with mobile iTouch devices for several years that enable employees to scan a barcode and check out a customer immediately.  Companies like Nordstrom and Home Depot are seeing increased sales because they can expedite purchases as the customer is trying on clothes, makeup, cordless drills or circular saws. No more waiting in line “thinking” about your purchase. Using Mobile POS employees can capture the buying moment and reap the benefits for the retailers.

Some interesting tidbits

• Nordstrom’s first quarter sales increased 15.3% since implementing Mobile POS devices.
• The average number of items sold per sale increased
• The average sales price per sale increased

We are seeing similar trends in the adoption of mobile work order systems like ZenTouch in the service Industry.

Driving service business with mobile work orders

With a mobile work order system on an iPhone, Android or Rugged PDA service technicians have full access to services, parts and prices to quickly create an estimate or service ticket for a customer. One customer reported he has seen a 17% increase in service techs availability to take additional service calls just by implementing a mobile work order system. Spread that across 8 technicians – that’s a big impact on our business.

Another customer reports, “Customers seem to trust a digital system that breaks down costs for services and parts rather than watching me rifle through a stack of papers. I can present a complete service ticket, review the recommended services, add or delete items and allow them to approve service immediately.” In the event a customer decides to wait to initiate a service call to talk with their wife/husband, review finances, check their calendar, etc. a technician or estimator can save the estimate and schedule a call back with the customer. Now all estimates and work orders are accessible via a mobile device with a simple search.  Technicians can access past estimates and immediately revisit the estimate, email it to the customer or convert it to a work order on the spot.

Clearly efficiency gains are being recognized on both ends of the spectrum by implementing Mobile POS or Mobile Work Order Systems.  These efficiencies are enabling retailers like Nordstrom and Home Depot to drive business at the point of interaction.  Service industry leaders are experiencing identical results.  By improving the customer experience the decision to buy is expedited and mobile enabled businesses are reaping the benefits.

Jody Sedrick