For retailers and shoppers alike StripeyLines can be customised to provide a number of useful features: In the run-up to Christmas or during sale events it could be used to allow visitors to affiliated retail stores to touch and feel products while on the shop floor then use their iPhone to scan the barcode of their desired products and collect them later at a “customer collection point”, or scan them and add them to online wish lists. Alternatively, in-store, or later over a coffee, shoppers can review what they’ve scanned to make an informed decision and perform further research before purchasing the items from their iPhone or desktop PC. StripeyLines search allows consumers to scan any standard product barcode to gain access to generic images and details – via either the retailer’s adapted version of their catalogue or through look-up search engines such as Amazon, eBay, iTunes and Google. The shopper can choose to carry out a number of different actions on a scanned item. For example, StripeyLines allows shoppers to search for the item on Tesco.com and add it to their online Tesco’s Grocery account shopping basket.

Numerous actions are in the pipeline for StripeyLines, including weight management. Having scanned a product the user plans to eat or drink, the application will update how much the nutritional value of that product contributes to their daily allowance and calculates the number of calories they have remaining. Retailer specific barcodes (the shorter 8 digit barcodes found on own brands) are being added to the StripeyLines search as retailers make them available. The first retailer to provide this data is Iceland Foods with data also being made available from Tesco through its TJAM initiative. For retailers that want to make the most of the mobile commerce revolution without developing their own iPhone application, StripeyLines will enable them to develop simple plug-ins that are beamed to shoppers’ iPhones and highlight certain lines and promotions when related items are scanned. With StripeyLines, retailers can now integrate their stores with a product show room on an iPhone where shoppers can ‘touch and feel’ items and use capture/scan technology to deliver enhanced product data, access the website, create wish lists, receive recommendations, and cross sell suggestions – limited only by the retailer’s vision. The StripeyLines application is available to download for free from the iTunes or Apple stores at: http://www.apple.com/. StripeyLines is also compatible with the iPod Touch, however users will need to type in the barcode number in the absence of the built-in camera available as standard on the iPhone.