OREANDA-NEWS. i-Free, a leading Russian developer of NFC (Near Field Communication) and remote payment solutions, has added NFC touchpoints to St Petersburg's OKAY superstores' shopping carts. The touchpoints enable the carts to be tracked online whether they're inside or outside the store, significantly increasing the reach of advertisements on the carts.

The project is almost entirely the brainchild of i-Free, which has added the NFC touchpoints to the carts, developed a mobile app to scan the marks, developed and implemented a storewide cart tracking system, and secured the exclusive conditions to sell ad space on the carts.

“We wanted to show how easy NFC is to use in everyday applications, and how it can simplify complex business processes,” said Nikita Petrov, i-Free project manager. “The new NFC-equipped carts take in-store marketing and promotion to a whole new level, which makes a real difference in today's oversaturated advertising environment. These carts also enable advertisers a far greater degree of control over the state and impact of their advertising than traditional store-based vehicles”. The OKAY chain superstore carts represent the first step in i-Free's campaign to equip large retail outlets in St. Petersburg and beyond with smart shopping cart tracking systems based on NFC technology. Advertisers can for the first time track the movements and turnaround of carts with carrying their message, delivering the most accurate picture yet of how their ads work on shopping carts.

The new carts' concept, designed by Australia's Markitcart and customized for use in Russian superstores, are lighter and more maneuverable than traditional carts, and are intended to keep ads in a position of maximum visibility at all times. Ads are placed on the sides of carts rather than on the front and rear, as in the traditional cart-based advertising model, providing greater visibility and higher numbers of views.

To support the increased trackability of the smart cart-based ads staff periodically take stock of the carts, scanning the NFC touchpoints with their mobile phones and transmitting data from the carts to their supervisors' phones using the special mobile application developed by i-Free. The route each cart takes through the store is placed in a database, accessible to advertisers, enabling detailed analysis of the impact of cart-based advertising on the route customers take through the store. The cart tracking system generates notifications to change out ads as required by partnership contracts. The NFC touchpoint can also be used to store information about a cart's condition, the state of the ad surface, condition of the poster, and so on. Everything is designed to help advertisers monitor the effectiveness of their advertising in real time.