The computerized self-checkouts kiosk is appearing in more and more retail stores throughout the United State. Many popular retail customers have adopted this technology and investing heavily into it. As technology grows, the way we pay for goods and services at retail stores have been and will continue to change. Traditional Point of Sale (POS) computers and registers have been updated with tablets, mobile phones, and self-checkout kiosk.
Stores like Walmart say automated self-checkout kiosks can increase customer convenience and choice. Many stores, such as Ikea are moving in the opposite direction. What does a self-checkout kiosk system fix and who or what will it impact long-term? Could we see labor supply increase or decrease with the
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Many people perceived these kiosks as a cost and time-saving alternative to traditional POS checkout lanes. The self-checkout kiosk allows one employee to supervise numerous kiosks at once.
A century ago, employees would need a wealth of knowledge in all aspects of the retail store. They would need to understand weight, measures, department codes to manually enter pricing. Many employees in today’s retail store are working for minimum wage and lack the store knowledge compared to employees from a century ago. Therefore, with the help of technology, it has helped the customer to have the ability to do almost everything on their own.
Most of the systems are similar and use a recorded voice and visual cues on a touch-screen monitor to guide shoppers through the process. At the bagging end, most use scales that can detect attempts to steal unscanned merchandise. Behind the scenes, each self-checkout station works with the supermarket's network servers, tallying the items and feeding the sales information into accounting and inventory databases just as if it were a regular checkout lane with a
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Self-checkout lanes are not entirely unstaffed -- Optimal Robotics' U-Scan system, for example, requires an attendant to monitor the activity at a cluster of four self-checkout stations -- but they do provide more service for less staff time than conventional checkouts. Optimal Robotics estimates that the four-station, the one-attendant configuration provides a level of checkout service that would cost a supermarket an additional 150 labor hours a week. This means that the systems can pay for themselves in about nine months, the company
When grocery shopping at a place such as Winn Dixie the customer many times thinks to his or herself whether he or she should pay cash, charge it, or pay for the purchase with a check.
Companies like Harley-Davidson and Lantis Eyewear are users of the pick-to-light technology. Harley-Davidson is using pick-to-light from 2001 for supplying motorcycle parts to customers and dealers with carton flow shelving. Lantis Eyewear is using their pick-to-light with carton flow shelving for order picking for both major retailers and small retailers. Easton Sport has replaced their warehouse management system and a tilt-tray sorter with a pick-to-light system for the customer orders. Bardwil Industries is a linen supplier that also uses their pick-to-light system for picking store orders for various national retailers. The combination of a warehouse management system with a pick-to-light system increases the accuracy of picking the right SKU unit and the right quantity of the SKU on each pick. Most of the companies using the pick to light system are able to achieve more than 99% accuracy. (Feare, 2003). Harley Davidson able to maintain an accuracy level of 99.7% (Langnau, 2001). After the implementation of a pick-to-light system Vitacost, an internet vitamin and supplement retailer, has been able to increase from 1,000 orders per day to 6,000 orders per day with the same number of warehouse workers (Bodenburg,
The unique system is particularly suited to the nonchain outlets. Chain-store outlets, most supermarkets, require a Regional or Divisional manager make decisions which makes sales and account servicing in these stores time-consuming and complex.
One of the ways that Albertson’s has implemented information technology into their business strategy is to offer self-checkout lines. Albertson’s is currently installing 4,500 NCR self-checkout terminals in its 2,300 stores. This new technology is estimated to cost in the range of $16 million to $20 million. Albertson’s feels that this may give them a needed edge to compete to lower its long run costs, and speed up the checkout process.
Also the checking out process has been technologically advanced as it was observed that iPhones and iPads are used on the sales floor to see what items are in stock at the location or other locations and to help customers in making a purchase. Using these items help with the communication among staff and customers. After making a purchase, the associate that assisted them will more than likely follow up with a personalized thank you note and invite them back to the store. Customizing the product for the customer also increases the use of technology. The customer chooses what product they want and they ask an associate to engrave their name on it, making it their own personal
The Walmart is able to keep track of its inventory with the help of a little gadget called, Telson. It scans the bar code which is not just a simple thing but it is almost like an encyclopedia as it tells all the information. The power of information is hidden in a bar code. It is very important as it keeps track of all the sales for example what is being sold, when is it being sold, history, sale prices and trend prices.
Do you really want department stores to be tracking your every step? Tracking customers is becoming more and more popular for stores in the United States. Currently, retailers are using cameras and smartphones to learn about their customers’ shopping experience and tendencies. Critics would say that it would make stores a more enjoyable environment, but stores should not be allowed to spy on customers. They are stalking users and customers’ information can be spread.
In 1945, Sam Walton opened his first variety store and in 1962, he opened his first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas. Now, Wal-Mart is expected to exceed “$200 billion a year in sales by 2002 (with current figures of) more than 100 million shoppers a week…(and as of 1999) it became the first (private-sector) company in the world to have more than one million employees.” Why? One reason is that Wal-Mart has continued “to lead the way in adopting cutting-edge technology to track how people shop, and to buy and deliver goods more efficiently and cheaply than any other rival.” Many examples exist throughout Wal-Mart’s history including its use of networks, satellite communication, UPC/barcode adoption and more. Much of the technology that was utilized helped Sam Walton more efficiently track what he originally noted on yellow legal pads. From the very beginning, he wanted to know what the customers purchased, what inventory was selling and what stock was not selling. Wal-Mart now “tracks on an almost instantaneous basis the ordering, shipment, and delivery of literally every item it sells, and that it requires its suppliers to hook into the system, enabling it to track most goods every step of the way from the time they’re made and packaged in the factories to when they’re carried out store doors by shoppers.” “Wal-Mart operates the world’s most powerful corporate computing system, with a capacity (as of late 1999) of more than 100 terabytes of data (A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes, or roughly the equivalent of 250 million pages of text.).
From the manufacturers’ warehouse to the shelves, the business must orchestrate a symphony of the right products to the right places at the right times. Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week in retail outlets, online and on mobile devices. The company is able to offer a vast range of products at the lowest costs in the shortest possible time (Chandran, 2001). The main reason for this incredible growth of Walmart is because its distribution centers are highly automated.
All choices made by Seven-Eleven are structured to lower its transportation and receiving costs. For example, its area-dominance strategy of opening at least 50 to 60 stores in an area helps with marketing but also lowers the cost of replenishment. All manufacturing facilities are centralized to get the maximum benefit of capacity aggregation and also lower the inbound transportation cost from the manufacturer to the distribution center (DC). Seven-Eleven also requires all suppliers to deliver to the DC where products are sorted by temperature. This reduces the outbound transportation cost because of aggregation of deliveries across multiple suppliers. It also lowers the receiving cost. The information infrastructure is set up to allow store managers to place orders based on analysis of consumption data. The information infrastructure also facilitates the sorting of an order at the DC and receiving of the order at the store. The key point to emphasize here is that most decisions by Seven-Eleven are structured to aggregate transportation and receiving to make both cheaper.
There are many reasons for choosing to go into a store to purchase items needed. For instance, having some assist you in finding what you need, or just answer questions about the product. It is also a way to get out of the couch, away from the television, or off the computer. Another feature is you can see and examine what you are going to purchase, helps in the decision making for most people. You know the minute the salesperson ring you up the product are yours to take home and use right away. It also makes return on items simple, take it back to where you bought and get an exchange or a refund if needed. For the draw backing for in store shopping is you do spending hours looking for the right product or in the lines trying to just purchase it. Or listening to all the people around you and all the additional noises you hear in stores. Not to mention store have set hours on when you can shop and when you can not, this is something which can change with assign on the door.
For instance they can purchase anything at any point of time without going out to any physical store; they can compare the prices of the product from different websites and can purchase from the site where they are getting cheaper; it also saves time; customers can also avoid pressure when having a face to face interaction with the salesperson etc. We can summarize these factors into 4 categories:
The advancements in the technological world have allowed supermarket chains and other national stores to quickly dominate the market and are driving out the concept of the ‘local stores’. This surge in the market has seen shares rise and profits bulge with the three main contenders in mind being Sainsburys, Safeways and Tescos who now serve the whole of the UK between them and are the household names of the shopping world. The ICT input to these businesses is vital in that it provides speedy service; controls stock levels and will even allow bank balance transfers to be carried out with minimal difficulty or technical experience.
Every minutes saved means less time waiting and more satisfaction to the customers. This would also encourage a first time buyer to become repeat customers.
Computer technology has had a significant impact on retail stores. All but the smallest shops have replaced the old-fashioned cash register with a terminal linked to a computer system. The terminal may require that the clerk type in the code for the item; but more and more frequently the checkout counter include a bar-code scanner, a device that directly reads into the computer the UPC printed on each package.