Decathlon Sports Opens Cashless US Store With IPhone Payment Interface

A cashless store that accepts cash—no, this is not a typo. That would be giant, French sporting goods retailer Decathlon that opened its first US store in California. Teaming with Boston developer NewStore, Decathlon provides an iPhone-based payment interface for in-store shoppers. While the store is billed as cashless, there are self-service kiosks that convert cash to gift cards. This system is one way that retailers can be in compliance in cities or states that do not allow cashless merchants. A Retail Customer Experience article discusses more on this topic which is excerpted below. Amid a growing and controversial trend of cashless retail stores in the U.S., Decathlon, the France-based company that touts itself as the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, has opened its first location in the U.S. using an iPhone-based transaction model. The company, which has more than 1,500 stores in 49 countries, has opened a 47,000 square-foot experiential store in Emeryville, California, following a year-long period during which it operated a retail laboratory in San Francisco exploring consumer preferences in merchandising and checkout and testing using state-of-the-art logistics technologies.