The company’s mobile selling assistant, Engage provides store associates with full transaction capabilities to assist customers without leaving their side. Retailer Urban Outfitters used the service last year in its stores.

“Savvy shoppers are using mobile devices more than ever before to influence their purchase decisions with customers having a tremendous amount of information at their fingertips,” said Jon Pafk, director of marketing at Starmount, Austin, TX. “Thanks to some phenomenal applications, I can scan items to look at pricing, compare products, look at ratings and more while I’m in the store.

“Retailers, on the other hand, aren’t necessarily equipped to manage the digitally-enabled shopper effectively or efficiently,” he said. “Starmount Engage helps extend retailers’ Web and enterprise store systems to a mobile device so that associates can help provide personalized service from point-of-interest to point-of-sale.”

Starmount software brings mobile and the Web in-store where retailers can create more personalized, relevant interactions with customers. 

Mobile shopping
Retailers using the service can tender with credit or gift cards and the application runs native on Apple’s iPod touch, iPhone and iPad.

Additionally, Starmount claims that the service will help retailers create a simplified customer data collection process.

“As we’ve seen in Apple stores and through our own implementation with Urban Outfitters, providing a mobile selling assistant can truly differentiate the store experience and help deliver on-the-floor efficiency – anywhere in the store,” Mr. Pafk said. “With Engage, store associates will have a much more powerful platform for customer interactions to help optimize service and deliver more effective selling.

“Engage currently runs natively on Apple devices, but we are looking to extend it to other platforms,” he said. “We work closely with Infinite Peripherals, makers of the Linea Pro, which couples the Apple iPod touch with an integrated bar code scanner and magnetic strip reader.

“The Linea Pro device is also currently designed to work only with Apple iPod touch at this time. As more mobile peripherals are delivered to the market, we’ll be working closely with our customers to define what works best for their needs.”

Retailers
The service also features a paperless e-receipt delivery, printer connectivity and lets retailers choose from various selling capabilities such as item and transaction discounts, price override and tax override. 

“We’re really excited about what 2011 will bring,” Mr. Pafk said. “It’s a new year with several new products planned to help retailers deliver a more relevant, connected customer experience.

“On the mobile front, we have a great roadmap planned for Engage and several partners we’re excited to work with,” he said. “We expect retailers to move more and more toward a mobile solution for their stores and believe we offer a unique product that builds on our many years of experience serving the retail space.”