In our reports for clients we spend a lot of time showcasing new and innovative digital Point of Sale (POS) systems, and how they are going to change the retail scene worldwide. Japanese innovation in area like this can be extremely infuriating because, despite amazing creations and possibilities, they seem to have a lot of trouble getting retail locations to adopt their systems. Panasonic, Fujitsu, NEC, and others have been creating amazing digital signage that works seamlessly with mobile phones using RFID, but I see very little of these products out in the real world.
This is why it was nice to see this digital POS for wine that, while simple, shows that the technology is slowly trickling out into the marketplace, though I have no idea about the extent of this outside of Japan.
Wine-centric iPhone apps like VinoforDinner should be able to easily incorporate barcode scanning into their services. Scan the code, get more info/coupons, match the perfect wine to your dinner, and keep a history of your wine shopping over time.
This RFID-based system for wine shown by our friends at Diginfo is great in a showroom, but try getting your average supermarket to adopt the system, tag their products, and then keep up the database!
We covered this RFID Wine Rack recently for an internal report, and it seems to be a pretty simple, compact solution that still uses cutting-edge technology. Shoppers scan cards representing bottles (not the bottles themselves), and explore both wines and foods available in the shop.
After making the perfect pairing, shoppers can print their recipe and go on to purchase the ingredients in-store, thus helping to push sales (especially for high-end products). It sounds simple, but just making sure that the ingredients for the suggested recipes are available is a tough enough job in itself.
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