Stores give staff iPads to keep up with shoppers

As retailers race to keep up with social media and mobile shopping trends, you could soon see sales staff in your local DIY or department store clutching iPads as they serve increasingly well-connected and informed customers.

"The consumers are coming in with better technology and better information than those working in the stores," Ian Cheshire, chief executive of B&Q owner Kingfisher, said at the World Retail Congress in Berlin. "Our staff have less access to the Web than they do." He said DIY store Lowe's in the United States was handing out iPhones to staff and that service applications using mass market mobile devices could play a big role in the future in stores.