A Good Year Ahead

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Self-service technologies seem to be one of the few winners in the current economic crisis.
 
While other investments have to wait, the opportunity to significantly reduce labour costs seems to be an attractive one for retailers: 2009 will be a year with extensive roll-outs of various forms of self-service checkout technologies at major European retail companies, including Carrefour, Delhaize Group and Ikea.
 
Tesco is also considering starting a shop floor test on a fully automated tunnel scanner from Wincor Nixdorf later this year. Despite the global economic situation, 2009 will see significant investments from major European retailers in an attempt to reduce costs.
 
At Wincor World 2009 in Paderborn, Wincor Nixdorf showed a new version of its fully automated tunnel scanner, which has been tested in laboratories by five major retailers. Although the machine looks similar to last year’s version, the bar code scanning is now performed through picture recognition rather than laser scanning. With machines like this, the need for self-scanning would be eliminated, as customers would simply have to put each item on a conveyor belt in turn. The reading rate, however, is still lower than at a manned checkout.
 
Tesco is currently considering a broader implementation of self checkouts in its Central and Eastern European operations. Although a decision on a solution provider for these countries has not yet been made, Tesco, who deploys NCR in the UK and in the US, is testing Wincor Nixdorf solutions in the Czech Republic. Pavel Vanoušek, Manager of IT Shared Services of Tesco’s European Systems Team, declared at Wincor World that there will always be a choice for the customers, “We will never completely replace manned checkouts.” In the Czech Republic, Tesco is testing self checkout in six stores in metropolitan areas. In a survey with its customers, Tesco in the Czech Republic found that 57% think the self-checkouts are faster, even though the throughput is actually slower. 27% prefer the machines because they can control the speed of scanning and check whether the checkout prices are aligned with the shelf prices. However, 11% do say that they miss contact with the staff. The next step for Tesco may be tests in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, but it has not yet been decided who will provide the machines in the CEE countries. Tesco always runs machines with inbuilt weighing scales that check if the bagged items have been scanned, and in this way avoid any stock losses.
 
Carrefour have just completed an initial four-year testing period and will now equip a significant numbers of stores in France with I-Scan self-service checkouts from Wincor Nixdorf over the course of the next two years.
 
Delhaize Group plans to replace many manned tills with self-service technologies in two-thirds of its Belgium stores over the next three years. The Delhaize Group is predominantly opting for scan-as-you-pick technology rather than stationary self-checkouts, with handheld scanning devices from Datalogic accompanying the shop person their way around the store.
 
In Delhaize Belgium, instead of paying at manned cash desks, the self-scanner users pay at payment machines within built cash recyclers. On 22nd January 2009, Delhaize Group launched RedMarket, a concept store, with a first site in Gembloux, Belgium. It is the first store in the world with a mobile self scanning only checkout concept. The store tests strictly self-scanning service, with 250 Datalogic Shop evolution handheld devices available to customers. For the payment, the store only offers self-service payment machines from Wincor Nixdorf and no traditional till. The payment machines accept card and cash payment and include cash recyclers.
 
Wincor Nixdorf has already equipped 10 Belgium Delhaize stores with its Pay Towers. However, customers with smaller baskets also have the option to checkout at stationary scan and bag solutions before leaving the store. These machines, also based on Wincor Nixdorf ’s I-Scan solutions and called ‘Quickscan’ at Delhaize locations, have been installed at 17 stores so far.
 
Investments this year could be delayed because it is still unclear whether scan-as-you-pick, mobile scanning devices, stationary checkouts with self-scanning and payment solutions (combined or separate) or new automated tunnel scanners will be the best long-term investment. MetroGroup is currently piloting mobile phones as self-scanning devices in its Real Future Store in Tönisvorst, North Rhine-Westphalia. These can be used as scanning devices (using an autofocus camera, a special operating system and internet access) while the shopper picks up items, and then payment occurs at pay stations. They are also testing ways in which payment could be made directly through the Mobile Shopping Assistant, such as through Near Field Communication, so that payment occurs wirelessly from the Mobile Shopping Assistant.
 
These new ideas have the potential to alter the ways in which current self-service terminals are set-up, adding new methods of shopping through new scanning and payment technologies. Of course, some challenges still remain for self-checkouts, such as the persisting need to maintain user-friendliness, how to make stationary self-checkouts that can be used for larger baskets, bulk items and without single-use plastic bags, the ability to handle cash in large amounts, and the integration of self-service into the existing POS software architecture. But new innovations, including cash recycling, mobile payment solutions and NFC, from leading POS technology vendors like NCR, Wincor Nixdorf, IBM and Fujitsu and self-scanning providers, like Motorola, Intermec, Datalogic and Höft and Wessel, are likely to enable retailers to speed up the implementation of self-checkout equipment over the next five years.