Infosys Wants to Make the Store a Web Page - Page 2

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An in-store concierge

Infosys envisions the app serving as an in-store concierge, a central portal where people can organize their shopping lists, retrieve recipes and receive notices or coupons for products.

So when that shopping cart turns down the toiletries aisle in the supermarket, ShoppingTrip 360 will know it, and might update that consumer's profile with a coupon for Crest toothpaste, for example.

In a nod to the privacy issues that inevitably arise a with any technology that tracks people's movements, Infosys bills the system as completely opt-in. First, consumers have to install the application onto their phones. Second, when entering a retailer that uses the system, the shopper would have to open the app and enter a code found on the sensor-enabled shopping cart or basket.

At that point, the shopper's profile would be populated with information about that store, and ShoppingTrip 360 would continue to update it as the shopper moves around the store.

But Infosys has set up the system so the consumer must initiate all interactions. On the back end, Infosys would provide reporting on the consumer's activities to its retail and CPG clients. Dadlani assured that the phone will never beep with alerts or text messages from ShoppingTrip 360.

So for the shopper to realize that the toothpaste coupon is available, she would have to hit the refresh button in the mobile app.

Since the information is delivered to the phone via the Infosys sensors, the system does not rely on the emerging location-based technology just beginning to infiltrate mobile devices.

A long deferred dream

In limited preliminary trials, Dadlani boasted that the service delivered what for CPG companies has been a long-deferred dream.

"They are seeing this as the only way to communicate with the shopper at the moment of truth," he said.

But the consumer leg of the service will have to wait. Infosys is not naming any of its launch partners as it introduces ShoppingTrip 360. The reason for the silence, Dadlani explained, is that Infosys wants to build a solid base of retail and CPG partners before it begins aggressively marketing the system to consumers.

Once that critical mass is obtained, Infosys expects the promotion of the product to proceed through the same channels that retail marketers communicate with their customers, such as in-store signage, direct mail and e-mail blasts to members of a store's loyalty program.