Danish startup Wallmob is introducing its new mobile point-of-sale specific iPad stand that’s designed to combine the best of both portability and centralized installation of hardware. It’s an aluminum accessory designed and produced in Denmark, Wallmob CEO Ken Villum Klausen tells me, and it’s a key, if understated addition to the startup’s growth strategy.
Wallmob has raised $1.2 million in funding thus far during a seed round, and is eyeing international expansion as its next big move. The startup offers a basic, one-size-fits all POS app for iOS targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, and also designs customer mobile retail systems for major clients including L’Oréal, Armani and the Red Cross. So far, it’s been active in the European market that it calls home, but the lure of the U.S. and other key demographics can’t help but draw Klausen’s interest.
The stand is only a small part of those goals, but it’s one that the company put a lot of work into. It features a snap-in base, allowing it to be mounted to a check-out or service desk, and then removed easily if a clerk wants to take it to the shop floor to help a customer directly. There’s a lot more going on in terms of interaction design and adapting to a changing retail space in that then you might think; retail is now often more about showrooming and the shopping experience than an assembly line of commerce, to help differentiate it from online buying.
“We have by far exceeded our own expectations to the stand, and all production facilities are running on maximum capacity,” Klausen said about the new product. “90% of all our POS clients have pre-ordered the stand, and we believe that the stand will help retailers adopt mobile POS much easier.”
Adding a stand represents a shift for Wallmob from being primarily a software provider, to being a more full-fledged solution-builder like San Francisco-based Revel Systems (which is itself looking to expand overseas). Revel would be one of Wallmob’s primary competitors when it does manage to roll-out more extensively internationally. And Wallmob’s focus on design could be an advantage for it, especially with design taking center stage for software designed to both customer- and internal-facing.