Automating the Check Out

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Worldwide, technology has emerged as one of the conspicuous winners in the economic crisis. Against the backdrop of tight consumer spend and vigorous competition, retailers have been compelled to revise their IT budgets and to employ staff more efficiently without jeopardising customer satisfaction.

In a groundbreaking move, Spar (UK) is set to roll out contactless payment technology across its 2 600-strong national store network. Based on the combination of an embedded RFID chip and the normal EMV chip on payment cards, the technology enables shoppers to make purchases of £15 or less by simply waving their card over a reader at the POS. The secure transaction uses the tried and trusted Chip and PIN technology to automatically add the purchase to the customer's credit card bill or debit it from their current account. The roll-out follows a four-store trial in London.

Developed in conjunction with IT partner BCP (Business Computer Projects), the contactless system integrates with the existing till system. Its incorporation into Spar’s POS store solution has been claimed as a first c-store sector feat. Citing the benefits of the contactless technology – faster transaction times, lower transaction fees, reduced training requirement, and a robust audit trail – Spar believes it will also satisfy the customer’s always high priority need for swift supermarket passage.

But Spar is not the only one on the look-out for a good thing. Having finalised its partnership with Barclaycard, UK high-street food retailer the Co-operative Food Stores intends a national roll-out of the revolutionary payment method in time for the 2012 Olympics. The roll-out will follow a pilot across 100 Co-operative food stores, to be initiated next year.

Contactless payment made landfall in the UK in 2007. There are now over nine million contactless enabled cards in circulation.

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An economy marked by successive interest rate and petrol price hikes, rising credit card debt and high food inflation raises challenges and calls for innovation across the activity board. For the retailer, in particular, the adoption and appropriate application of a constantly evolving in-store technology is vital to a cost-saving operation and a potentially profit-generating business. Who better to ask for input on such decisions than the customer himself?

The value of consumer-centrism
To what extent does retailer technology need to be consumer-centric? Is there a relationship between shopper satisfaction and effective technologies? Is a positive shopping experience, made possible by technological intervention, necessary to exceptional retail performance?

Last month, shopping consultancy TNS conducted an international Innovation Survey to gauge shopper perceptions of the value of in-store technological innovation. The survey, entitled New Future In Store, was based on the responses of 4 600 primary household shoppers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US. The survey’s core finding was two-fold: The common denominator among respondents was a high ranking of shopping innovations that free up time and most respondents expect those technological innovations to make their shopping a great deal easier in the not too distant future.

Some of the innovations expected to be in widespread use by 2015 are already in practice in some places today. These include shopping by social networking websites, collaborative product development, group shopping and the dissemination of sales and product information via cell phones.

The “Next Generation” Store
How does the customer envisage the “next generation” store? What devices and systems will it incorporate?

New Future In Store reports that 60% of shoppers across the globe believe that they will
be able to make fingerprint purchases by 2015. This innovation also proved the most popular among respondents. In the US, respondents were particularly keen on the “smart cart” conception. These thinking, interactive shopping trolleys will unburden the shopper of his traditional in-store work, from locating products to confirming prices, storing desirable information and executing checkout. Spanish respondents, on the other hand, were more in favour of the concept of a refrigerator network through which goods may be ordered and delivered.

Clothing retailers are under no less pressure to techo-evolve. A confident 73% of shoppers globally say they expect to be using interactive touch screens in dressing rooms to communicate with sales assistants by 2015. Half or more anticipate the arrival of 3D body scanning and interactive dressing room mirrors in the same period. Once again, these applications are expected to reduce the work and stress of the shopper.

South Africa
Locally, self-service through technological innovation is also a focal point, but South African retailers are more concerned with following a logical progression of development. And appropriately so. Getting the back office software in order first will facilitate future advancement. Also to be taken into account are certain local impediments to the introduction of those forms of self-service that involve transactions. South African consumers currently show a distinct preference for the check out clerk at the POS to a self check-out arrangement. Trust in the cashier and store still needs to be promoted. And of course theft remains a matter of concern across the country.

Conclusion
Retail technology is all about making collectively advantageous human connections. Irrespective of its location and the composition of its application, technological innovation drives real time retail performance. Keeping pace with technological capability translates into fewer buyer restraints and ultimately a consistently activated shopper. And at the end of the day, it’s all about an enhanced shopping experience – for the consumer and the retailer alike.