Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

“Customers with Internet access on their wireless devices will be able to click through to a screen displaying a UPC bar code, which can be scanned at the cash register. For other wireless users, the 7-Eleven sales associate can enter the selected numeric code on the cash register for redemption,” said a statement issued by the chain to explain the trial. “The codes are only good for the free beverage indicated in the coupon. The message also includes an invitation to receive future text messages with 7-Eleven news and offers.”

The trial was designed to test several concepts. Goal one is seeing whether consumers would be comfortable using their phones in this way, a program intended to attract Gen Y/Millennial consumers, an extremely important (and frustrating) marketing group for major retailers today.

“Our marketing programs try to reach [consumers] where they are, by radio and outdoors, when they’re in the car, at movies and sporting events, or online at Facebook, Twitter and slurpee.com,” said Rita Bargerhuff, 7-Eleven’s vice president and chief marketing officer. “Mobile marketing is the next step to reach our target customers: the Millennials who don’t go anywhere without their phones.”

But the trial is also focused on seeing how well the mobile marketing offer plays in various Hispanic communities. The “mobile marketing test is supported by both general and Hispanic-targeted radio, outdoor and mobile advertising,” the 7-Eleven statement said. “Participating 7-Eleven stores will communicate the promotion with bilingual point-of-purchase signage.”

The most interesting technology of the trial involves its capability to improve scan read accuracy by incorporating the size and shape of the phone’s screen and whether it will reorient the barcode image.

The phone itself reveals most of those details when the consumer clicks on the link to start the redemption process. The mobile browser will telegraph those details. If it says it’s merely a generic browser, the software will make appropriate changes, Person said. Without that capability, he added, the variations on the devices could be huge. “It could be an old handset or it could be a brand-new handset,” GMR’s Person said.

Other retailers have pointed to non-tech issues as most often interfering with accurate barcode reads, things such as a dusty or dirty screen or the consumer holding the phone at a bad angle, perhaps causing excessive glare. Person and 7-Eleven’s May both said that the accuracy has been reported to be quite strong thus far. “We have seen no issues with the stores scanning coupons,” May said.

Person said his reports indicated 100 percent accuracy, but it wasn’t clear if an associate who had gotten an accurate read after rescanning the barcode two or three times would have simply said it was an accurate scan. Does that mean that it scanned perfectly the first time?

As a practical matter, the trial has an ideal safeguard. If the barcode doesn’t scan, the consumer can simply read the number to the store associate, who can manually enter it into the POS. Or the consumer can hand the phone to the associate, who can copy the coupon info into the system. But it wouldn’t take too many manual inputs to undermine the speed of the trial, which will likely be essential for a convenience store chain. In short, the lack of scan accuracy would be a deal-killer.