Mobile technology has revolutionized the in-store shopping experience, and fewer devices have done it better than the tablet. In-store tablet use merges the best of traditional, sensory-oriented in-store shopping with web-savvy consumer demand for instant data and transactions. Though many retailers are adopting this in-store technology, they’re just starting to scratch the surface of its potential. There are many ways retailers can use tablets to transform the in-store experience. Here are five that top the list:

1. Tablet Kiosks 

Tablets offer a newer, cheaper and sleeker way for retailers to offer in-store kiosks while providing a fundamentally different experience from traditional kiosks. Tablet kiosks bring interactive, rich experiences that allow shoppers to develop their own experiences, such as choosing how long the engagement will last and selecting only what they need. Kiosks also let brands provide an “endless aisle to shoppers,” giving them an ability to buy products online that are not available in store and thereby avoiding potential customer walkouts.

The ability to analyze customer data and turn that insight into highly relevant customer communications provides a powerful platform that helps brands prepare for the digital future. Since everything marketers understand about customer loyalty is changing, nowhere is that change more profoundly felt than in the collection and use of customer data for marketing.

Hal Varian, Google Chief Economist and Economics Professor at UC Berkeley, believes the new “coin” of today is consumer data. In today's globalized, fragmented economy, winners increasingly will be separated from losers by their ability to collect, analyze and derive actionable insight from consumer data. Varian has coined a term for those companies who have an edge in customer data insight: the Datarati.

Price matching and price adjustment policies are all over the news this holiday season.  In addition to the standard programs of this ilk that are habitually available across multiple retailers, Walmart launched a special time-based price adjusting program in advance of the 2011 holiday shopping season. The program not only matches any lower competitor price at the time of purchase, but does so for any purchase made at Walmart at any time before Dec 25.  Similarly newsworthy, Amazon recently attempted to generate more interest for its Price Check application by offering shoppers a 5% discount (up to $5) on up to three items purchased on Dec 10.  Smelling like a test to see what kind of results it generates, these tactics encourage shoppers to use brick-and-mortar retailers as showrooms then (theoretically) get the lowest price at Amazon.