BACK-FACTORY is a leading bakery franchise that provides tasty bakery treats and wholesome snacks throughout Germany. They were looking to improve in-store efficiency and enhance the customer experience throughout their stores.
Prior to working with Pan Oston, BACK-FACTORY had a relatively traditional checkout process for a self-service bakery. Customers were required to place their bakery products on a tray, visit the checkout counter and then wait while one of their employees manually enters each product into the checkout before making a payment. Unfortunately, this traditional checkout experience resulted in queues, customers losing interest in buying and a poor overall customer experience. During peak times, customers were not able to receive the excellent service that they are passionate about delivering.
In order to improve the checkout experience for their customers, BACK-FACTORY decided to switch to self-checkout. Despite a strong desire to leave the traditional checkout experience behind that was frustrating customers, several key challenges needed to be overcome. Firstly, as bakery products are all freshly prepared and not pre-packed there was no scope to accommodate barcodes on each product which could then be scanned. Secondly, requiring customers to manually select products on-screen was likely to be less efficient and could result in shrinkage issues due to theft or customer error.
Resolving both key challenges required a unique self-checkout solution that was powered by AI. Walkout Technologies GmbH, a specialist in retail AI applications, was approached to create a practical solution. Walkout Technologies and Pan Oston worked together to develop an AI kiosk powered self-checkout that would transform the customer checkout experience at BACK-FACTORY.
Pan Oston B.V. and Walk Technologies GmbH collaborated to create a self-checkout machine solution in the form of an AI kiosk that could deliver an excellent customer experience. The AI kiosks are powered by computer vision and have completely transformed the self-checkout process at BACK-FACTORY. Customers do not even need to scan any of their bakery products, the new AI powered self-checkouts can recognise up to 10 products within a second.
The new AI kiosks have a simple and intuitive interface for BACK-FACTORY customers to use:
1. Place a tray of bakery products onto the designated area of the AI kiosk
2. Allow the AI kiosk to automatically identify your products
3. Check your order and confirm that it is correct
4. Pay for your order and enjoy BACK-FACTORY’s bakery treats
The computer vision technology within the AI powered self-checkout is able to identify all of BACK-FACTORY’s products on different backgrounds. It can even detect the topping on a roll (e.g. Salami or Chicken). As a result of adopting our AI kiosk, BACK-FACTORY’s customers can enjoy a fully automated self-checkout process and an improved customer journey with minimal friction.
BACK-FACTORY’s AI kiosk system has already driven excellent business results within a short timeframe. Research shows that implementing QSR terminals generally results in a 15% to 20% increase in average order value. Their results thus far confirm that an average order value increase within this range has been achieved. This increase in average order value alone is an excellent business result, which confirms that the AI powered self-checkout system has been a great success.
The excellent results do not end with the increase in average order value. The AI kiosk has also significantly reduced the average checkout time per customer to just 25 seconds! Such a significant reduction in checkout time increases customer throughput, which allows more customers to be served and enhances the customer experience.
In addition to this, the self-checkout system has reduced queues by 45% during peak hours. This ensures that fewer customers are left waiting in the bakery and more are able to enjoy a fast and frictionless shopping experience at BACK-FACTORY. Alongside this, the AI self-checkouts have shown a very high frequency of use.
The new AI kiosk system has delivered this impressive trio of business results with a return-on-investment period of just 9 months.
Our innovative AI powered self-checkout has not only impressed BACK-FACTORY, it has also become award winning, gaining the award for RETA Top Supplier in the Best Customer Experience category at the 2022 RETA awards. The RETA awards are organised by the German retail institute EHI. We are delighted to share the award with BACK-FACTORY GmbH and Walkout Technologies GmbH.
Irina Kuzco, Sales Manager at BackFactory, on winning the RETA Award: "At BACK-FACTORY, we are always looking for new ways to improve our customers' experience. Together with Pan Oston and Walkout Technology, we were able to do this. Winning the award for Best Customer Experience just shows us that we are on the right track."
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