Unilever is beginning a trial to test a new technology that lets consumers redeem digital coupons by having a supermarket cashier scan their mobile phones. Interest in Mobile coupons is growing day by day and these tests will allow Unilever to understand the use of them.

Unilever to Test Mobile Coupons - WSJ.com

The test, being conducted at a ShopRite store in Hillsborough, N.J., will include discount offers for some of the Anglo-Dutch packaged-goods company's most popular brands, including Breyers ice cream, Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton tea. Samplesaint, a Chicago mobile-technology firm, developed the system.

"This has been a Holy Grail thing that people have been trying to figure out," says Marc Shaw, director of integrated marketing at Unilever, the first major marketer to test such a service in the U.S. "I think this is on target for where consumers' heads are at right now."

To get the coupons, customers must visit the Web site Samplesaint.com, from which they can transmit the Unilever discount offers to an Internet-enabled cellphone. At checkout, the cashier scans the bar code on the phone's screen, redeeming the coupon and deleting it from the phone. The test will run for four weeks, and Mr. Shaw says he hopes to see it extended to other stores after that.

Watch Retail Speaker & Retail Consultant Jim Dion talk about 12 worst mistakes in Retail Technology and how to avoid them.

According to a recent survey from SAP (done in conjunction with British Retail Consortium), more than 51% retailers are looking at different channels to increase revenue and are moving online in a big way. Another big outcome was the fact that 54% of respondents to the survey believe that focusing on improving the customer experience will be the key driver to surviving the downturn.

Read More: Improving the customer experience is key to surviving the downturn

WSJ.com is reporting that Wal-Mart is offering businesses low-priced drugs if they sign up to buy directly from Wal-Mart's network of in-store pharmacies, rather than contracting to buy drugs through third parties known as pharmacy-benefit managers. This will heat up competition for other Pharmacies and Retailers by increasing footfall to Wal-Mart stores. And you all know what happens when you visit a store like Wal-Mart, you tend to buy lot more than what you go in for.

Apparently the Pilot companies have already seen benefit from buying directly from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart began a trial of its program in September with heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar Co., which provides prescription coverage for 70,000 employees and their dependents. Wal-Mart negotiated a fixed markup over its cost for the drugs it sells to Caterpillar's employees under the heavy-equipment maker's in-house insurance. Though Wal-Mart doesn't reveal the costs to Caterpillar, they are verified by a third party. The markup guarantees a profit for Wal-Mart, while reducing the cost to Caterpillar.Todd Bisping, who manages Caterpillar's drug-benefits program, said the company was able to reduce its drug costs enough that it waived copayments on generic prescriptions bought from Wal-Mart.

Jeremiah Owyang has a video on how Best Buy uses social technologies internally. I agree with Jeremiah that success of Social Media hinges on how many employees really believe and are active users of all things Social. Check it out here, Video: How Best Buy Uses Social Technologies To Change Internal Culture.

Virtual Reality Simulations of Stores can provide a peek into the mind of consumers while being easy on Retailers pockets. Brandweek has a story on how consumer research firms are offering programs which allow Virtual Reality simulations of Stores, Virtual Shopping, Real Results

“We instruct respondents to shop as they normally would and ask them which displays capture the most attention,” said Covkin. “Because it’s virtual, you can change things on the fly.”
Testing new products in a real store environment would be too expensive and time-consuming, Covkin said. “In the perfect world, we’d be testing everything in a real store environment. However, due to the time it takes to implement an effective test and get compliance with retailers, the cost is enormous.”

Over the last couple of years, we have been seeing a surge in the crowdsourcing idea and innovation sites. Dell has Ideastorm, P&G has Connect+Develop. All the sites express their needs clearly and allows customers and partners to suggest new ideas. Retailers have picked the trend, first it was Starbuck with Mystarbucksidea, now Campbell has joined these companies by launching CampbellIdeas.com.

From Supermarketnews:

Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) is inviting scientists, entrepreneurs and inventors to submit their ideas via a new Web site called “Campbell’s Ideas for Innovation.” The site, which can be accessed at www.campbellideas.com, has been established to provide an easy way for people to submit their innovative ideas to Campbell for evaluation.

Campbell is focused on generating ideas in the areas of new products, packaging innovation, product line extensions, environmental sustainability, business processes and marketing. The company also is interested in new technologies related to sodium reduction, vegetable nutrition and healthier fats and oils.

We will see more and more retailers coming on board and using customers and partners for Idea Innovation.

SAP has been making giant leaps in India with increased adoption of its software in retail industry. I had blogged about the same few months back and that time SAP had over 60 Retailers to talk about, the list now has gone upto 72.

Over 72 leading retailers, including DLF Retail, Khadim Jewellers, Fresh & Honest Cafe, Super Religare Laboratories and Religare Wellness Limited, Dimexon Diamonds and C Mahendra, have simplified business processes, reduced cost and adapted to the changing industry landscape with the adoption of SAP for retail solutions.

Retailers are using SAP for building end to end solutions and not just as ERP.

In the retail sector, technology is deployed not only in accounting and human resource management, but also in core functions like buying, merchandising and store management.
"IT applications are witnessing adoption from the very beginning till the 'last mile' of the business operation for most retail functions and the key solutions being looked upon by retailers in India today are ERP/ERM solutions, supply chain management (SCM), inventory management and security solutions," said Arpan Gupta, manager-services, BPO & Industry Verticals Research, IDC India.

Retailers across the board are using SAP technology for greater visibility into consumer spending trends. Among the latest implementation of SAP in India is DLF's foray into retail - adopting SAP for retail solutions including SAP POS.

Via Microsoft Retail & Hospitality Newsletter, got to read the Retail TouchPoints insightful article on the 5 key trends they observed in this year’s NRF event.  The retailers who are able to manage the following 5 trends will emerge the winners in this downtrend. The Key trends include, Efficiency/Cost Savings, Analytics/Business Intelligence, Customer Centricity, Connected Channels and The Arrival Of Mobile Commerce.

Read more here, 5 Key Trends From NRF Which May Separate The “Has Beens,” The “Survivors” & “Thrivers”

Thought provoking article by StorefrontBackTalk on P&G’s decision to pull back from Wal-Mart RFID Trial. Key takeaway, The test failed and not the technology.

P&G’s Decision To Pull Back From Wal-Mart RFID Trial Quite Understandable

Say what you will about RFID, but it is the picture-perfect companion for hyperbole. Any development is either instant death for RFID or the magic trend that will make item-level RFID universal by late Friday morning.

It’s therefore not surprising that so much has been made of the decision by Procter & Gamble (P&G) to abandon its tagged promotional displays at Wal-Mart. On the one hand, this can be seen as a setback for such tagging projects. P&G touted the effectiveness of its display tagging project often.

Given P&G’s reputation for ROI worship, many assumed the company pulled the plug because RFID was failing the test.

What is closer to the truth is that the test failed, not the technology. And to the extent that Wal-Mart was as much a player in this trial as P&G, it could also be said that the test didn’t fail, the tester did.