Mobile in-store technology

From e-commerce to in-store technology

Swim’s work with Gap began in 2004 and has involved numerous projects over the years, primarily addressing e-commerce aspects of the business. More recently, we led an effort to redesign the store Point-of-Sale user experience from the ground up. This effort dovetails with a larger Gap initiative to completely replace the existing cash-wrap software and hardware.

We conducted research in stores — observing store associates, store managers, and loss prevention personnel — and interviewed product managers and internal stakeholders. We identified where the existing software was overly complicated to use as well as opportunities for new functionality that could provide powerful ways to meet customers needs. Swim also participated with developers in the inception process, learning about the myriad technologies that underpin the point-of-sale.

Swim designed the vision for a platform-agnostic, responsive, cloud-based user experience. That vision served as the foundation for a series of progressively more functional MVPs that have been deployed on iPods and, more recently, iPads.

"Mobile checkout is a breath of fresh air." — Store Operations leader

The project has spanned several years, and Swim continues to observe, design, validate, and improve on the original vision, working closely with developers and internal Gap designers to meet new and unexpected developments. The new mobile checkout was hailed by a leader of Store Operations as "a breath of fresh air."

Ensuring Sales Associates are supported everywhere

Swim is also working to ensure that “back-of-house” applications are as useful and useable as possible. We adapted and simplified the user experience previously provided on an LRT (Laser Radio Terminal) gun. Swim’s designs migrate the experience to iPods and support tasks such as price markdowns and inventory management with greater visual feedback and clear process flow directions. Response has been incredibly positive, with numerous stores reporting that Sales Associates love it.

"The new back-of-house app is a thousand times better than LRT." — Gap Store Associate