U.K. Retailer Sainsbury's Trials Mobile POS Service

U.K. supermarket chain Sainsbury's became the latest retailer to experiment with a mobile point-of-sale service, announcing this week a trial of its "Mobile Scan & Go" service that lets customers scan items as they shop using their iPhone or Android phone and pay at checkout.

The company claims this service is the first of its kind in the U.K. To use Mobile Scan & Go, customers first download the app, and register using their Nectar card -- the company's customer loyalty card.

Once inside a Sainsbury's store, they then log in to the app using their loyalty card information and scan the 'check in' QR code at the front of the store. Customers then can use their smartphone's camera to scan items as they shop. The app also tracks how much customers have spent and shows savings that can be made with offers and deals.

Several retailers in the U.S. have similar pilot programs running. Home Depot and PayPal partnered earlier this year on a small-scale pilot of point-of-sale technology.

In September, Bank of America also announced it was partnering with mobile payments company Paydiant to trial a mobile payments service at five merchant locations in the bank's headquarters of Charlotte, N.C.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio