A new mobile service from Staples is helping parents amass their kids’ school supplies by snapping a photo of the checklist.
Under the Scan My List program — an extension of the retailer’s B-to-B Easy System — a bot (or Staples associate, for hard-to-read handwritten lists) will populate shopping carts with the closest product approximations within 48 hours. Parents can then edit their baskets and order the items for shipping or in-store pick up.
The service is presently in beta test for select customers on Staples’ mobile iOS app, and is likely to be employed for applications beyond back-to-school.
Staples said its Easy System uses computer vision, artificial intelligence, crowdsourced data, and mobile interfaces to enable a chat-based experience.
