The Agency for Advanced Information Technologies (APIT), a Russian group of IT consulting and hardware retail companies, has announced its intention to deploy touch screen terminals throughout the country allowing local consumers without an Internet connection to order goods and services from selected Russian e-commerce sites.
The terminals will be placed in local shops. Customers will make their purchases using the screen and pay for the order at the shop’s cash desk.
APIT expects this service to be particularly popular in areas where traditional offline retail is still underdeveloped and offers a limited assortment. The terminals could be deployed as soon as 2012 in 10 towns and villages of the Moscow region. By 2015, the network could be expanded to the Tambov, Ryazan, Vologda and other Russian regions.
The project may have been inspired by the success of offline electronic payment terminals in Russia over the last decade. Through these machines – now ubiquitous in the country – Russians have grown accustomed to paying for virtually everything from mobile phone subscriptions, utilities, taxes, and fines to orders at some e-commerce sites.
Source: APIT press service.
