OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- So the cliché is leaving your morning cup of coffee on top of the car and driving off. Worse would be a baby in the carrier, but let’s not go there.
In developing a Top Tech list for 2016 recently (watch for the January issue of CSP magazine), mobile strategies ranked high, as it did last year. Now in the past, retailers have myopically considered payment as its own standalone mobile challenge, but as consumer-facing technologies raise expectations of retail, the breadth of an operator’s mobile strategy is only getting wider.
Consider Rotten Robbie’s California test where a car can wirelessly activate a pump, initiate a payment and track loyalty points.
Instead of using a phone to do a site search, find out price or location, pay and receive rewards, it all happens on the car display screen.
As seen in the test with Santa Clara, Calif.-based Robinson Oil and its Rotten Robbie location, car makers are already creating connections on their end to allow for such transactions, and retailers will probably have some work on their side to complete the loop.
So during any strategic development process, the message is clear: Don’t forget the car—or the watch for that matter. These days, a mobile device is not just a phone.
Maybe this warning is obvious--the elephant in the room. The customer’s mobile experience will become expansive and omnipresent, certainly extending beyond the retailer. The good news is that it seems that other parties, in this case the auto makers, are stepping up.
In the end, thinking of the total picture—the entire situation from getting low on gas through to an upsell purchase—will keep retailers from overlooking the obvious.
Angel Abcede, who writes the Mobile 2 Go blog, has covered technology in the convenience-store industry for more than two decades. Share your thoughts with Angel at aabcede@winsightmedia.com.
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