PowaTag to "transform" the way we shop and buy

UK-based e-commerce start-up, Powa Technologies, has launched a retail app that is part mobile wallet, part e-commerce plug-in, as it sets to revolutionise how consumers shop and buy products. Launching in partnership with more than 200 brands including sportswear giants Reebok

and Adidas, the technology allows shoppers to purchase items online, from the TV screen, from a window displays, or any medium where a PowaTag code is displayed, by simply taking a picture of it via the smartphone app or by activating the microphone to access the audio file.

Mad

e up of several components, PowaTag works by using a QR-code featured on a price tag or a print advert, or via an audio watermark on a TV advert or Youtube clip which takes the user to an m-commerce store. The app also includes “touch now” technology, which allows online shoppers to skip the delivery and payment information stages of the purchase cycle, meaning that they can buy items on a smartphone in just one touch.

Additionally, the app also ties into the partners’ in-store Bluetooth technology, allowing the shop to send browsing shoppers information and promotions.

The aim of the technology is to reduce attrition rates, boost shopper spend, while also increasing customer engagement, and the fact that it works across e-commerce, mobile and physical stores is why the technology’s chief executive Dan Wagner believes it will drive a new “evolution and revolution” in retail.

Wagner said: “The retail landscape is changing fundamentally and the battle for customer loyalty is becoming more sophisticated with technology improving access to information. Against this background, traditional brick and mortar retailers need to radically overhaul the way they develop, present and distribute their products, providing new innovative technology-led ways for customers to browse and ultimately pay for their purchases.

“PowaTag will launch a retail revolution where stores can create a proliferation of ways through which they can deepen their engagement with their customers. Payment is one of the key ways shopping is changing for the better and we are thrilled to be a major part of this process.”

PowaTag app aims to revolutionise shopping

The technology has been ten years in the making and Wagner has built up an investment pot of nearly 100 million US dollars to bring the app to market and to launch on both the Apple and Android systems. The app is free for users to download; the technology makes its money by taking a small fee, typically 40 cents (about 25 pence) or 0.1 percent of the price paid for the item, whichever is the greater.

At the New York launch, Wagner added: “The retail sector is being forced to respond to growing market pressures from customers wanting greater levels of control and freedom of access and choice on how they purchase goods.

“Retailers can no longer afford to think in terms of online versus offline – they must seriously rethink how they connect in-store and online strategies. Our hybrid combination of technologies which include Bluetooth beacons, instant payment authentication and mobility enable retailers to have a richer engagement with their customers and understand their needs and cater for them in a more focused way.”

As well as sportswear names Adidas and Reebok, New York-based designer Rebecca Minkoff has signed up to the technology, as has Quiksilver, Carrefour, jeweller Theo Fennell, Missguided, Laura Ashley and The Cambridge Satchel Company.