NCR in Slovenia and Denmark

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Spar, the world’s largest food retail chain with nearly 126,800 stores in 32 countries, has installed NCR self-checkouts in twelve Spar Interspar hypermarkets in Slovenia to enable customers to scan, bag and pay for goods themselves.
 
The deployment of the 52 self-checkouts was signed with the support of Printec, NCR Solutions Partner in Eastern Europe. If the trial is successful, NCR SelfServ Checkouts could be deployed to other Spar stores in Slovenia during 2010.
 
Aspiag (Austria Spar International AG), Spar Slovenia’s parent company, grew by 10% to generate 10.66 billion Euros in retail sales in 2008. The self-checkout initiative is designed to continue this growth trajectory by increasing customer service levels and enabling it to operate more cost-effectively.
 
The self-checkout kiosks feature NCR’s patented two-sided thermal receipt printer, which enables simultaneous printing on both sides of a receipt, reducing paper consumption by up to 45% and speeding up print times. In addition, the NCR RealPOS High Performance Scanner/Scale offers good scanning performance to help make self-checkout scanning even quicker for consumers.
 
 
Cash inputs and outputs are arranged side by side to allow for enhanced ease of use for consumers, while ‘follow-me’ lights on the units guide consumers through each step of the checkout process. NCR SelfServ Checkout now supports standard integrated coin recycling, as well as the option for integrated bill recycling, reducing the frequency with which they need to be replenished.
 
Greg Mann, NCR SelfServ Checkout Solution Specialist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa: “Consumers across the world are demanding the speed, convenience and control offered by self-service. Indeed, research shows that shoppers are more likely to shop with a retailer that provides self-checkout technology. Spar is a great innovator and is differentiating itself from competitors by offering its customers market-leading self-checkout technology.”
 
Printec, NCR’s largest solutions partner globally, was involved in the overall project implementation, providing local project management, hardware and software installation, training and roll-out support services.
 
Dansk Supermarked Gruppen (DSG) is the number one retail group in Denmark, operating brands including the Netto discount chain, large format Fotex supermarkets and Bilka hypermarkets. Since 2008 they have rolled out self-checkouts from NCR to twenty Fotex stores, seven Netto stores and one Bilka store.
 
Prior to the early deployments, NCR looked at traffic patterns through each of the existing checkouts and the space they occupy. The consultants model the optimum mix of assisted- and self-service lanes and their ideal location to minimise queuing at peak times. They also provided training to help the retailers’ self-checkout staff manage the area by observing customer behaviour and watching the overhead tri-lights to identify if someone needs assistant.
 
The latest version of NCR SelfServ Checkouts enables shoppers to insert loose change in bulk rather than inserting coins individually. In addition, integrated coin and note recycling mean that the units need to be replenished less often.
 
Research shows that significant numbers of shoppers fail to spend all they intended to because of ‘out-of-stocks’, difficulties in finding products and the prospect of queues at the checkout. Self-checkouts help on all three counts and also enable retailers to make smarter use of their staff by making more tills available to speed up checkout times and ensuring shoppers get the help they need in the aisles.
 
“Self-checkouts are far more compact than regular checkouts,” noted Greg Mann, NCR SelfServ solution specialist for EMEA. “This means retailers can make far more tills available for customers and free up some staff for other important in-store roles that help to drive up sales and service levels.”
 
According to Steffen Skov Larsen: “Between 30 and 50% of customers are opting to use our self-checkouts, depending on the store. We have indications that customer throughput has increased over the last year which has been a challenging one for retailers.”
 
Larsen sees significant potential for the technology in the future, “We anticipate that 60 to 80% of our stores will be suitable for self-service. In 2010 alone we are looking at rolling out the technology to 25 more stores nationwide and anticipate further expansion in the future.”