»  Shoppercentricity

The challenge with technology in shopper marketing is not the lack of innovative technology, but the lack of adoption of the technology with shoppers. As most of the technologies are new, it takes a while for the adoption curve to get past early fringe adopters.

Knowing this, I think it is significant to watch the growth of mobile barcode scanning. A new report from ScanLife, as demonstrated by the chart to the left, shows it is on a serious growth trajectory. Even though it has a small base upon which to grow, statistics like "there were more barcode scans performed in a single month starting in July 2010 than in all of 2009" point to an increase in shopper adoption of this technology. The article goes on to say barcode scanning is up 700% this year and 1D and 2D barcodes are scanned about equally, "showing people are less concerned with code format, and more interested in getting information quickly."

What is important to note with this trend is not just the adoption, but the fact that this is technology shoppers are using at the point of sale. This points to a larger trend of shoppers adopting and utilizing technology to help them make smarter decisions in stores and at shelves.  

This has many implications to retail marketing. Here are a couple quick take-aways:
1. Shoppers are using technology to make them smarter. How are you using technology to inform and influence decision at the point of sale?
2. Shopper insights must be based on actual understanding of behavior. If you don't know how your target audience is getting information or approaching purchase decisions, it is time to invest. Without a true understanding of your audience and their behaviors, your work will be ineffective or worse, it could be just plain irrelevant.