From taking orders to checking inventory on the go, small businesses are starting to embrace and reap the rewards of technology — and especially mobile. We are always hearing about small businesses in the area experimenting with technology to reduce costs, be more efficient, reach customers through new channels, and deliver better experiences. Here are three small businesses we’ve heard about or run into recently leveraging mobile to benefit their business:
Sconset Cafe & Bookstore Wines
What could be better than owning a shop on a beach? How about managing your shop from the beach. Nantucket’s Sconset Café and Bookstore Wines owner uses a new web-based point of sale system called ShopKeep. Since ShopKeep’s software BackOffice is web-based, the owner uses his iPhone to monitor inventory moved, change prices in real-time, run reports and more.
More recently ShopKeep announced release of an iPad app that replaces the entire cash register, including printing out receipts and even making that nice ka-ching sound when a sale is made. The register app transmits sales to its web-based BackOffice software. Check out the video below taking you through Bookstore Wines, the ShopKeep interface, and hear from owner Rolf Nelson himself on his favorite aspect of ShopKeep (mobile):
Seaport Hotel, Aura Restaurant
Whether it knows its part of the Innovation District or not, Aura Restaurant at the Seaport Hotel in Boston is headed in the direction of geek. Call it what you will – high tech or high class – this restaurant is passing around iPads to guests to make it easier for you to decide which wine to order with your meal.
Using the iPad app Wine Pass, Aura’s wine list is formatted and fitted to the iPad complete with descriptions, pairings with different meals, and photos of bottles and their labels. Now you don’t have to sit there overwhelmed or confused, and can instead sit at ease and with intrigue when digitally perusing Aura Restaurant’s 21 different wines by the glass and over 135 by the bottle.
Clover Food Lab
Not just mobile in the sense of having one of the most popular food trucks in the city, Clover Food Lab is getting a reputation for its use of technology (just check out their blog). Servers at the Clover Food Truck and their spot in Harvard Square are armed with iPods and iPads to take and manage orders. The person taking orders enters it into a web app on an iPod/iPad, and the people preparing the food in the truck or in the back of the restaurant also have one. At the truck, you’ll often see two people outside taking orders on exceptionally busy days when a lot of people are in line.
“Some customers call it getting food at the Apple store,” said Clover General Manager Vincenzo Pileggi in a recent Harvard Crimson article. In that same article Clover reported having begun testing an electronic white board that will also display preparation time for each item ordered.
While not yet as a primary point of acceptance, Clover Food Lab also uses uses Square, the technology that allows anyone to accept card payments on their iPod, iPhone, or iPad with a small device that plugs into the headphone jack. Founder Ayr Muir was quoted in a recent Technology Review article, “Payments are a mess, and someone is going to solve the problem, but I don’t know if it’s going to be Square, or Verifone, or someone else.” This was before Square cofounder Jack Dorsey announced dropped the 15 cent per transaction fee.
What other small businesses do you know who are using mobile in innovative ways? Reach out to us or let us know in the comments!
