U.S. consumers would be able to use their smartphones to pay, collect and redeem coupons, and price-compare products and services both online and in stores under a partnership deal ARS Interactive and CellPoint Mobile announced Jan. 6.
ARS Interactive says it plans to unveil the shopping product, dubbed ARS Mobile, next week at the National Retail Federation 2011 Big Show in New York.
Several U.S. merchants have agreed to offer the service, but it may be another two months before they launch, Kristian Gjerding, CellPoint Mobile CEO, tells PaymentsSource, declining to reveal the companies’ names or the types of businesses they are.
Denmark-based CellPoint created the software behind the service, which already is available in other markets, including Europe. Palatine, Ill.-based ARS Interactive, which provides U.S. merchants with marketing and consulting services, will promote ARS Mobile to its customers.
Participating consumers may access the shopping service through an application or their phone’s Web browser. Merchants individually would sign up and offer the service to their customers. The goal is to enable participating retailers to use the shopping service to create loyal customers, Gjerding says.
Large merchants may opt to buy the platform, while smaller ones likely would opt to pay a monthly licensing fee based on the functions they want to use, Gjerding says. Available functions include the ability to both read and redeem coupons as well as pay using Near Field Communication/proximity technology, post and redeem loyalty rewards, and bar code reading for product price comparisons and explanations.
Because retailers do not want the bar code-reading function to turn them essentially into expensive showrooms, they could enable the service to direct customers who scan the codes on products in their stores using ARS Mobile to a specific Web location with special offers not available elsewhere, Gjerding says.
“One thing that will be possible is Just In Time (discount) offerings,” he says. The system knows this device is looking at this product, say a barbecue grill. Then the store can decide to give a Just In Time offer and to offer other value-adds. That’s the approach we’re taking.”
Consumers may use their phone’s browser to pay, or they may pay at the checkout counter. ARS Interactive offers its mobile service through a Payment Card Industry Data Secured Standard-compliant Web-based program interface.
The service also can support any type of contactless-payment function, including stickers and microSD or NFC chips, according to Dale Heim, ARS Interactive vice president of sales and marketing.
“Retailers will all have their own approach to the technology and how they approach it,” he says. “Ultimately, consumer demand will drive retailers to do what they do and how they operate.”
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