The retail sector constantly faces challenging trading conditions. In recent years, the pandemic threw a ‘new normal’ at us. This gave rise to a plethora of pressures for retailers and consumers. We dealt with social distancing, store closures, a rise in ecommerce and greater dependency on self-service checkout and kiosks. Since then, self-service has proven itself: it keeps queues moving, improves efficiency and enhances customer experience. And, while some debate its efficacy, the reality is that 77% of shoppers choose self-checkout for faster services, according to NCR Voyix research. Joanna Latkowska, CEE Sales Manager, BIXOLON Europe GmbH explains how self-service can improve efficiency in retail, and help organisations deal with today’s rising operational costs, staffing shortages and improve customer loyalty.
Costs Just Keep Increasing
Increasing operational costs are bringing many retailers to their knees. They are coming in thick and fast, and are relentless. In April, UK retailers faced up to an increase in employer National Insurance contributions, and a 6.7% rise in the National Living Wage. To make matters worse, for some larger retailers, contributions to business rates are set to increase dramatically too.
Additionally, while energy costs have “decreased”, they’re much higher than they were pre-pandemic, even if there are plans to lower them by the Government over the next 10 years. These pressures are adding up, making it harder for businesses to maintain healthy margins.
Unfortunately, these conditions inevitably impact the price of products, with costs being passed on to consumers. Moreover, in a trading environment where inflation and the rising cost of living continues to squeeze household budgets, shoppers are scrutinising their spending more closely than ever, and reassessing their loyalty to brands and retailers in the process.
The Customer Experience Differentiator
This is where it becomes even more important for retailers to ensure that they invest in providing an outstanding customer experience that drives loyalty. There are many ways to achieve this online and in-store. Sainsbury’s encourages shoppers to use its Smart Shop app or a self-scanner in-store – demonstrating the power of self-service and the effectiveness of loyalty schemes. This approach could help consumers save over £150 in an environment where operational costs are set to rise.
This move demonstrates how powerful loyalty schemes and self-service can be within the sales mix. Self-service kiosks and checkout counters enable retailers to connect shoppers with systems that enable them to check out their goods fast and keep queues moving. They also help ensure customer experience is standardised: the experience can be branded, present information in multiple languages, and offer upsell and cross-sell opportunities that humans often forget. While the initial outlay to purchase them may be a little bit more costly, these systems can be implemented in a modular fashion, and built into the sales and marketing strategy in a complementary fashion alongside using shop floor staff. And, since they don’t need breaks – or costly national insurance contributions – using them to support customers becomes compelling. Of course, the technology needs maintaining; but when carefully planned, it offers a formidable, long-term, cost-effective approach, especially where productivity gains are desired.
Using this technology also means that repetitive tasks can be improved and staff can be deployed to other areas within stores that deliver a great customer experience. For example, at the sporting goods retailer, Decathlon, it is using self-service alongside RFID technology to enable self-checkout. Decathlon is also equipped with instore kiosks that check stock availability and which support in-store pick-up (collections), freeing up staff’s time to serve customers on the shop floor and to keep it tidy, among other tasks. Additionally, IKEA is leaning on self-checkout and in-store kiosks to support it with managing stock checks, item location, and its home delivery services.
Ultimately, people will always be needed to run and operate stores too. That human connection will always be required to work alongside technology. For instance, at times people will need to be on hand to help in specific situations, such as when a barcode is illegible for reading; age-verification during the purchase of alcohol; or to carry out a refund, among many other tasks.
What Makes Self-Service Checkout Tick?
Therefore self-service – kiosks and checkout counters – have a powerful role to play in the sales and customer loyalty process. Technology is the key enabler, and while many people are familiar with the various scanners and screens that customers and staff engage with during shopping, many often overlook the importance of the printer used to issue receipts and loyalty vouchers. This component is rarely celebrated, but it plays a pivotal role in many self-service journeys. For example, take a receipt: if it is printed and is unclear, delayed, or fails entirely, it undermines the entire experience and can lead to delays. Further, in high-pressure retail environments, reliability is essential. Any downtime is costly both financially and in terms of customer satisfaction.
Additionally, the printers used within self-service kiosk and checkout environments face a particular set of demands. They must be compact, robust, and capable of operating for long hours with minimal intervention. They need to support various types of media, resist common issues like paper jams, and integrate with the overall kiosk technology architecture in a way that ensures maintenance is straightforward for staff to complete alongside their usual duties (e.g., changing a paper roll). The expectations of customers for speed are constantly rising too, making printer performance within retail vital, as any failures to print can erode a positive customer experience.
Conclusion
Tesco started trials of self-service at the checkout in the early 2000s. However, getting the balance right between staff-manned tills versus self-checkout needs careful strategic planning and consideration, as Asda and Morrisons discovered – with Sainsbury’s hedging its bets on self-service and “hybrid” checkouts, and the European retailer, DM, also depending on self-checkout as part of its customer experience and sales strategy. In addition to this, we also see that M&S is stepping up its store rotation programme with a £300m investment this financial year, and we expect self-service and ‘click and collect’ to continue to form part of its checkout experience. Therefore, as self-service’s proven ubiquity grows, it is vital to ensure that the entire shopping experience is frictionless at checkout, and that printing that final receipt promotes a positive and efficient customer experience that plays a role in building loyalty.