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As retailers in the UK prepare to reopen in line with the lockdown-easing roadmap unveiled by the UK government, businesses are thinking about solutions that can help them make the most of the widely anticipated retail recovery. Self-checkout machines & kiosks are a great solution that can offer multiple benefits to forward-thinking retailers that choose to adopt them. The adoption of self-checkouts by supermarkets has been rapid and sustained: almost all supermarkets now boast a checkout zone that includes them, and they have proved to be popular with customers from all generations. Retailers can learn from the adoption by supermarkets and carry these learnings forward to benefit their efficiency and customer experience.
In this article, we explore the key advantages of installing self-checkout machines & kiosks for retailers both big and small.
Now more than ever customers expect a great customer experience when they are shopping. The sustained rise of online shopping with its slick and often seamless online checkout experiences has raised customer expectations for in-store shopping. While there are many ways that retailers can improve their customer experience, improving your customer experience in the checkout zone can often result in the most significant improvements of all.
Customer frustration in the checkout zone is an all-too-common feature of many shopping experiences. For retailers that rely on traditional checkouts, long queues can be commonplace as checkout operators and retail assistants battle to maintain a fast checkout flow. Getting customers into your shop / store requires great effort and marketing, and losing them due to a slow checkout experience will hit your bottom line and could lead to the loss of a valuable customer in the long-term.
Research by Forrester and Digimarc concluded that the checkout experience and length of a checkout queue are very important to shoppers, with 50% of shoppers stating that the checkout experience is very important and another 35% identifying it as important. The research also found that only 23% of shoppers are satisfied with the length of queues, which makes it the aspect of shopping that people are least satisfied with.
Retailers can cater to customer demands for a great checkout experience by adopting self-checkout kiosks. Kiosks can improve your customer flow allowing your shop to serve more customers while keeping queues short. Self-checkout machines are also significantly more footprint-friendly compared to traditional checkouts. The space taken up by each traditional checkout can often accommodate multiple self-checkout kiosks while also freeing-up valuable retail space for further shelves to display products.
The pace at which technology is evolving seems to be accelerating at an ever-faster rate. The last year with COVID-19 has shown us that the unexpected can be just around the corner. The future of retail is a hotly debated topic, with many future trends on the horizon. One trend that we can be almost certain of is that the pace of change is likely to increase further. Retailers are facing a challenge from fast-growing online retailers and need to have the flexibility and agility to adapt their shops to meet changing customer demands.
Self-checkout machines are flexible and offer the flexibility that retailers need to adopt new technology and respond to trends. Self-checkout kiosks offer modular designs that can be expanded with additional components when they are first ordered and, more importantly, at any time once they have been installed. If you notice new technology coming onto the market, be the retailer that can adopt it quickly rather than having to wait and miss out on a great opportunity.
The capabilities of a self-checkout solution do not end there. Innovative solutions like those offered across Pan Oston's families of checkouts are hardware and software independent, giving you, as the retailer, the ultimate flexibility to choose and change your hardware and software whenever you need to. Updating your kiosks with a new receipt printer or scanner is easy and cost-effective. It is easier than ever before to make the most of your investment in self-checkout technology when you can easily upgrade components without the hassle and cost of having to upgrade multiple components or switch to an entirely new solution unnecessarily.
Employees of a retailer have a number of tasks to complete as part of their day-to-day role including customer service, stock replenishment, POS material updates and checkout operation. Reducing the amount of time spent undertaking checkout operations will help your employees to dedicate more time to other critical tasks while also maintaining a great customer experience for shoppers.
A group of self-checkout kiosks in your checkout zone can be managed by one employee who will oversee customers using the kiosks and assist with any issues as they arise. This compares favourably to a checkout zone that consists of only traditional checkouts which require one employee per checkout. There is a significant efficiency saving to be made here as the total number of staff required to operate the shop/store is reduced resulting in lower overheads and increased opportunities to expand into other areas of retail.
Self-checkout solutions also eliminate the potential for human error at the checkout. The checkout process can be completed with precision with the correct prices for products being recorded and the transaction taking place with the customer's chosen method of payment.
Our team of dedicated self-checkout specialists are ready to help your business make the most of self-checkout technology. We are experienced at delivering complete checkout solutions for retailers across multiple sectors including food, non-food, DIY shops, betting shops / gambling chains, garden centers and coffee shops to name a few. Retailers can rely on our 50 years of retail experience and 165+ strong team of specialists with in-house consultancy, design, manufacturing, project management and service capabilities. Choosing Pan Oston means that you can draw upon the experience of an award-winning company that has won the prestigious Red Dot Design award.
Pan Oston is trusted to deliver innovative retail solutions by leading UK and international brands including M&S, Starbucks and SPAR. Why not find out how we can help make seamless shopping possible in your shops / stores? Contact our UK sales team today to discuss your self-checkout requirements with one of our specialists.
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