Mobile coupon POS scanning problems solved?

The speed and ease with which mobile coupons can be distributed is being hampered by redemption difficulties at point of sale. Few are aware that when Starbucks launched its mobile coupon campaign the café chain had to replace all of its scanners for the app to work.

As it currently stands mobile coupons presented at point of sale usually need to be printed, manually keyed in by the checkout assistant or downloaded to a loyalty card.

"As impossible as it seems, even to technologists in the mobile industry, a vividly displayed barcode cannot be read by the typical barcode scanner," said Nick Holland, senior analyst with Yankee Group.

"The inability for a red laser scanner to read information displayed on a smartphone is not a small problem. This limiting factor is stalling important innovation as the retail industry is stuck waiting for next generation mobile technology to go mainstream."

However, new technology developed by mobeam could speed up the redemption process and negate the need for stores to change their current checkout equipment. It works by converting barcode data on mobile devices into a beam of light that can easily be read by the 165 million red laser barcode scanners currently in use around the globe.

"mobeam's technology addresses virtually every POS environment," said Chris Sellers, CEO of mobeam. "mobeam is solving a significant problem for consumers, brands, retailers and every other player along the retail value chain. The potential for mobeam's light based communications technology - from mobile couponing to ticketing to mobile content - promises to be a tremendous industry game changer."

Tags: barcode scanner, ecommerce, in-store, mobeam, mobile coupon, mobile marketing, point of sale, retail marketing