Microsoft Surface may not be about immediate return on investment, unless of course you are Harrah’s, but I think it could give companies who are willing to take the leap into the 21st century a competitive advantage. In my mind Surface can bring 3 things to user experience:

• Efficiency.
• Uniformity.
• Innovation.

Efficiency

Think about the things that drive satisfaction. In a retail situation, you just want the transaction to be correct and expedient.

Uniformity

People don’t like McDonald’s for the food (do they?), they like it because they know that no matter which McDonald’s they go to, wherever the hell they are, they are going to get the exact same thing. That said, they do not have apple pies in China, they have pineapple pies! Brilliant! Surface has the power to bring that uniformity.

Innovation

Doing something new and different will generate buzz and if people adopt it, change the way things are done in the entire market.

Surface in Retail

I would like to see Surface at checkout. Instead of that stupid conveyor belt, let’s put our groceries on the surface, bar code down. Surface will put a little green glow around the item to let us know that we have succeeded. Stuff can still move down the conveyor to the bagger, but now we have a chance to do some marketing!

First, surface takes care of the checkout. Assuming the person scans in with their thumbprint, phone or loyalty card (are we really still making people carry them? How stupid is that!?) surface can link to their online profile where maybe they have already prepared a list.

If they have forgotten something on the list a message can appear on the surface that asks if the customer would like someone to bring it up for them. If they respond positively, the item is added to the bill and everyone in the store is paged to have someone bring the item to the front. In the meantime, we are capturing all kinds of great information on the customer that we can compare to others. The surface can create custom entertainment on the checkout monitor next to the conveyor belt based on the person’s preferences. It can suggest recipes based on items on the table and could offer discounts on items that other people who buy the same items as customer like. The customer could touch the recipe to put it on their phone or have it emailed. They could touch an item to have it added to their tab and have someone in the store retrieve it for them.

Surface has the power to upsell and to make sure that people optimize their trip to the store and create a uniform experience with each trip. The question now is, who will be first to try it? Shaw’s? Stop & Shop? Piggly Wiggly? Publix?