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"After digesting a $3.5 million investment round secured in July, mobile self-checkout service provider QThru is beginning its expansion in the US\u00A0as it launches apps for iOS and Android.\r\n\r\nAfter a successful test-run at the Ridge IGA Supermarket in Snoqualmie, Washington, QThru is planning on bringing its smartphone-based self-checkout service to 14 grocery and hardware stores in the Seattle area by the end of January 2013. There's also a grocery shop in Alaska introducing QThru to its customers soon.\r\nWhat's up?\r\nThe idea of the service QThru has built is quite simple and is aimed at beating the long lines you no doubt see in your local grocery shops. Users download the iOS or Android app and fill in their credit cards' details; after that, when in a store, shoppers can just scan barcodes of the items they are picking out and then check out by entering their pass code and scanning a QR-code at a QThru kiosk machine. Then a supermarket employee may check if all the items have been paid for.\r\n\r\nWith its solution, QThru targets mostly small and mid-sized stores, as decision-making processes in bigger retailers are often too slow, the company's CEO Aaron Roberts told TNW.\r\n\r\nShops pay \u201Cseveral thousand dollars\u201D for QThru\u2019s hardware,\u00A0and there is also\u00A0an \u201Caffordable monthly recurring service charge,\u201D while the price of a traditional self-checkout solution with proprietary scanners and huge counters starts at $20,000, Roberts said.\r\nWhat's new?\r\nWhile the first iOS app, released by QThru, was tied to the supermarket, where the service was being tested, the new versions will work in any store that is connected to the system. You can see all the shops around you on a map, even if they don't have QThru checkout yet, and even suggest their owners to get one.\r\n\r\nAfter choosing your desired supermarket,\u00A0you can scan items to add them to your virtual shopping cart. Also there's a Deals section where all the daily discounts and special offers\u00A0of the store are shown.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe QThru apps can also be used outside of a store to create shopping lists either by typing or by scanning barcodes on the products you need to get a refill of. The items will be automatically moved from the list to the virtual shopping cart when you scan them at a store.\r\n\r\nIn the coming weeks, QThru's team\u00A0will focus on adding new features to the apps, including shopping history and shopping list sharing.\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat's next?\r\nNext spring is going to be a big time for QThru, Roberts said. The company is set to launch a coupon portal of sorts, allowing stores registered in the system to create coupon campaigns with advanced targeting by region or particular shops.\r\n\r\nWith this functionality, QThru users will be relieved of clipping coupons. Instead, they will be receiving customized (and hopefully relevant) offers related to items they scan while shopping in real-time.\r\n\r\nAnother feature planned to go live in spring is grocery ordering. Users will be allowed to order and pay for groceries remotely to collect later. After an order is finalized, a store's employee will prepare everything to be ready by the time specified by the customer.\r\n\r\nApart from this, during the spring of 2013 QThru is hoping for a new round of funding,\u00A0potentially larger than the cool $3.5m it reeled in back in July.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 QThru for iOS | QThru for Android\u00A0\r\n\r\nDisclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.\r\n\r\nMore Android screenshots:\r\n\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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