Today’s consumers are an anonymous bunch who, if you’re lucky, will tell you exactly who they are through a loyalty card or payment method when they reach the Point of Sale. But getting this information while they’re standing at the register is almost useless in influencing the transaction value of their shopping trip. Retailers with eCommerce sites have learned that there is a very rich and valuable stream of information available about how consumers shop a web site: the clickstream data that tells you things like at which point a customer abandoned their cart. It reveals much more about the “why” behind consumer behavior online.

But at the average retailer, online transactions only make up less than 10% of sales, leaving more than 90% of sales without that increasingly important “why” data. Providing a customer with a handheld that they carry with them around the store presents an opportunity to fill in those blanks – consumers identify themselves when they pick up the handheld, and tracking the decisions made with the handheld gives you much deeper insight into how that customer engages with you when they are in the store.

This report examines the role that consumer-facing handhelds plays in the shopping experience, and identifies lessons learned from early adopters, including Stop & Shop’s experience with Modiv Media and Motorola