System Gives Shoppers Info Via NFC

By Cheryl Knight, contributing writer

Near-field communication has been in headlines lately, thanks to Apple Pay, but beyond helping merchants accept payments made from customers’ smartphones, the technology has other applications your retail customers might want to consider.

For example, London-based furniture retailer Made.com, in conjunction with CloudTags an American-based startup, has started supplying its customers with tablets that allow them access to product information while shopping at their London showroom, according to a RFID Journal article.

Shoppers can create a wish list of the products they want to look at in the showroom, and, with the tablets, equipped with NFC readers and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) functionality, an NFC RFID tag is attached to each piece of furniture in the showroom. As the customer browses in the showroom, the RFID tags supply information on the items for sale — and the BLE beacons provide information on where shoppers go in the store, how much time they spend there, and, if the customer provides log-in information, which pieces of furniture that customer liked so they can be notified of future sales. 

NFC can also be applied to bootstrapping a wireless connection, social networking, games, and identification. And because NFC transmissions are short range — from a tap to a few centimeters — use is accurate and secure.

Beyond payment applications, NFC can help merchants develop systems that enhance the customer experience — as well as giving IT solutions providers opportunities to develop those systems.