A cashless store that accepts cash—no, this is not a typo. That would be giant, French sporting goods retailer Decathlon that opened its first US store in California. Teaming with Boston developer NewStore, Decathlon provides an iPhone-based payment interface for in-store shoppers. While the store is billed as cashless, there are self-service kiosks that convert cash to gift cards. This system is one way that retailers can be in compliance in cities or states that do not allow cashless merchants.
A Retail Customer Experience article discusses more on this topic which is excerpted below.
Amid a growing and controversial trend of cashless retail stores in the U.S., Decathlon, the France-based company that touts itself as the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, has opened its first location in the U.S. using an iPhone-based transaction model.
The company, which has more than 1,500 stores in 49 countries, has opened a 47,000 square-foot experiential store in Emeryville, California, following a year-long period during which it operated a retail laboratory in San Francisco exploring consumer preferences in merchandising and checkout and testing using state-of-the-art logistics technologies.
Decathlon worked with Boston-based NewStore, which provided its omnichannel-as-a-service technology, to transform the retail experience for Decathlon customers and offer them a range of sporting goods and athletic apparel purchasing options that provide greater speed, convenience and profitability than many legacy retail methods.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group