Nexus 7 as a retail/sales assistant?

[TekNinja81]

Hey folks.

So I work in retail, and a coworker of mine uses a BlackBerry PlayBook as a personal assistant to aid in research and sales of items at our store. I.e. for looking up inventory, pricing, and other product info via our site and internet. He has found that using the PB has positively affected his sales and due to the busy nature of our store, he's able to help customers more efficiently by staying at their side and minimizing the need to use our own limited computers for such tasks.

I'm curious to know if this is something many of you have done using the Nexus 7 since it is similarly portable and such a powerful device. I'm considering getting one anyway for personal use, but if it would also benefit my needs at work I'd consider that an added bonus.

What has your Nexus done for your business?

 

[anon(847090)]

if playbook can have positive effect then hell yeah nexus can do that and more.

 

[Praggles]

Is he using a particular app or suite of apps? Is he tied into your point of sale system and if so how? What type of business small or large chain? Is it his BB or company issue? Is he scanning bar codes? If so separate scanner or camera on BB? Just curious exactly what you coworker is doing with that BB.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

 

[TekNinja81]

The funny thing is, most of what we do/need to do at my work is web-based, with the exception of the actual checkout process. But we can check product levels/info/warranties etc, as well as place product orders/transfers all through the web without any special apps. That said, I'd love to be able to actually check-out customers from a mobile, but at least at the moment, we're not set up for that (plus we have specific cashiers and nobody else is allowed to anyway.) I find one of our biggest bottlenecks is the fact that we only have 3 computers available for the entire staff/customer base to be able to look up info/process orders etc, which is frustrating when there are sometimes many people all needing to use these machines at the same time.

Without having a rear camera, barcode scanning would be a bit difficult, but I suppose the Nexus would also be useful for inventory maintenance and getting price tags etc printed if we could somehow interface our systems with Android. I see a ton of potential for these devices in such environments, just a matter of getting the software end of things put together.

... now... if only there were an OtterBox or similar protective case available for these guys, I'd probably already have picked one up. Wonder why OtterBox hasn't come out with one yet. Despite the amount of bulk they add to devices, I swear by the Defender series for all my phones and wouldn't mind one for the Nexus.

 

[natehoy]

... now... if only there were an OtterBox or similar protective case available for these guys, I'd probably already have picked one up. Wonder why OtterBox hasn't come out with one yet. Despite the amount of bulk they add to devices, I swear by the Defender series for all my phones and wouldn't mind one for the Nexus.

Seidio has their "Active" case available for the Nexus 7 now - see the thread in the "accessories" section for details. Looks nice and protective.

 

[Koshnix]

Otterbox is working on a defender right now

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[TekNinja81]

Seidio has their "Active" case available for the Nexus 7 now - see the thread in the "accessories" section for details. Looks nice and protective.

Otterbox is working on a defender right now

Both great to hear, I look forward to the options if/when I pick up the Nexus.

 

[natehoy]

Both great to hear, I look forward to the options if/when I pick up the Nexus.

If I hadn't already Kickstarted the 10terra bamboo case for my Nexus 7, I'd be all over the Seidio offering. I currently have the same "Active" case for my HTC Thunderbolt, and it's very protective without adding a lot of bulk and the holster I got with it is very nice (not that I'd necessarily want a Nexus 7-sized holster!!!)

That's important with a Thunderbolt, because this thing is useless without the extended battery, so with the big battery and ginormous backplate to fit it the thing already weighs almost as much as my Nexus Seven. (grin)