Italy: Eataly and Vodafone collaborate on smartphone ordering

Technology giant Vodafone and Eataly, the gourmet Italian retail and restaurant chain, are collaborating on a new online grocery platform that will allow users to order and pay for products using their smartphone.

Dubbed SmartPoster, the system uses “intelligent posters” displaying products available to order. Users select the products they want from the poster by means of NFC, QR codes or optical recognition to start filling their virtual shopping trolley, and can then pay securely online using a bank card. The goods are delivered to the customer’s home or office address.

Vodadone’s Italian headquarters in Milan is to be the testbed for the new technology. According to Vodafone, around 2,500 of its employees will have access to many hundreds of Eataly products through 6 posters displayed throughout the site.

The new platform has been announced as smartphone usage in Italy continues to rise. According to research by Milan’s Osservatori Politecnico, 71% of Italians use their smartphone in-store and the mobile digital payment market, which was valued at € 1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) in 2013, is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, reaching €8.3 billion ($11.1 billion) by 2016.

Source: Key4Biz / Vodafone