Freshman Taylor Kuznia is at her favorite retail store in the Mall of America. She walks around the store and try’s to decide which clothes she really needs. She finally makes her way to the checkout’s long line. After waiting in line, she puts an armful of clothes onto the counter and notices the cashier is holding an iPhone with a bulky phone case instead of a scanner attached to a register.
“I was shocked,” Kuznia said.” I’d never seen anything like it before.”
Once the cashier scans her items, he tells Kuznia her payment and she hands him her credit card. The cashier swipes the card in a slot on the phone case. Suddenly a receipt printer turns on and with a few robotic noises spits out her receipt.
The new checkout machine is the Linea- Pro 4, which has started to become common in retail stores, such as Nordstrom’s. It is a case for an iPod touch or iPhone 4/4S that has a magnetic card and barcode scanner.
“I was a little confused,” Kuznia said. “But I thought it was pretty cool. It seemed like a productive idea.”
Businesses are starting to use technology to their advantage, some also use social media to promote new products and bring in more customers. Businesses are starting to embrace Twitter, and use it to market their products, and it is also free.
Freshman Cassie Stevens follows Proper & Prim, a clothing boutique in downtown Fargo, on Twitter. “I follow them to see when they get new products,” Stevens said. “Their tweets persuade me to buy new products. They post pictures and then describe what would go good with that piece of clothing.”
Twitter is also used to release news and direct attention to special offers and content.
“Their tweets tell me when there are sales or parties there,” Stevens said.
A variety of businesses use Twitter, from your local clothing boutique to big well-known companies.
“We are able to keep our customers involved in our culture through Twitter,” said Courtney Storms, a customer service representative at Zappos.com.
“We’re able to assist our customers’ customer service issues through this channel, as well,” Tony Hsieh said, the CEO of Zappos.com, says that Twitter can be greatly useful for companies, but only if they use it correctly.
“You have to just be real and use it as a way to connect more deeply with people. Don’t think of it as a marketing tool you have to leverage,” said Hsieh. “You actually have to be passionate about twittering or it’s not going to work. So if you’re not passionate about it, then don’t do it.”
Even though only about 10 percent of small businesses use Twitter, they use it to their advantage, and it is also easy to connect with other businesses to keep up with the competition.
Technology is a vital part to businesses today. Many new kinds of technology come out every day, and technologies like phone scanners and social media are becoming more and more common.