Mobile

There was a time when retail CIOs could afford to be “fast followers,” waiting on the sidelines for a budding technology to mature before jumping in with both feet.

Not anymore. “We’ll wait and see” has been replaced by “we can’t implement fast enough” as CIOs adjust to the new world of consumer-driven tech cycles. After several years spent cost-cutting and working with miniscule budgets, retailers expect to boost spending on technology by 10 percent, on average, this year.

I n December, London-based YES-wallet launched Pouch, a mobile and web-based digital wallet that will support near field communication (NFC) payments. With NFC, a customer retains payment card information on her smartphone that can be transmitted to make a payment when she holds her phone near a point of sale terminal that has been equipped with a special reader. The payment is then converted at a call center and routed through existing payment networks.

J erry Kohl knows when to say goodbye to a certain type of technology. The old cash register is a great example, he says.

“If you talk to the people in the stores using cash registers, you’re going to see that ... everybody other than the Apple Store thinks their software isn’t user friendly.”

The Apple Store changed the world, Kohl says. That’s one of many reasons why Kohl has introduced mobile solutions in Brighton Collections, his chain of fine goods accessory stores.