Mobile will be an increasingly useful tool for many shoppers and retailers are right to invest in technology that will help shoppers and increase revenues. The challenge with any new technology is that it must work as expected by the shopper or they will simply stop using it. So every aspect of using a mobile needs to work smoothly.
For many mobile applications once the software has been written and tested there is a good chance that it will work as expected every time. The one area that is not under the same control is any media that needs to be scanned by the mobile. This could be a bar code on a price ticket or QR code on a piece of promotional POS usually printed on paper. The paper media needs to be in place and accurate. In 90% of stores this is not the case for all price tickets and promotional materials.
The only way to ensure that all of the media which shoppers need to identify and scan a product is in place is to have a signage management system in place for all stores. Without a signage management system like NetTickIT shoppers will get even more frustrated by missing price tickets and POS than they do now.  This will affect the take up of mobile use in stores.
Retailers like Waitrose know this and are already making investments in signage management systems. Other retailers need to look into it quickly if they want to ensure that their mobile applications work as expected by their shoppers every time.