PASADENA, Calif. — Evolution Robotics Retail Inc. announced that its LaneHawk Visual Scanner solution to prevent bottom-of-basket (BOB) losses is now available for the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 server operating system. To date, LaneHawk has been a Linux-based platform.
Several thousand stores are currently under contract with LaneHawk. Retailers using LaneHawk have reported decreases in BOB losses by 80-90 percent since deploying the technology. BOB loss accounts for 0.1 percent of front-end sales, which equates to ten dollars per lane, per day in a typical store. Prior to LaneHawk, most efforts to reduce BOB loss have depended on cashiers visually checking the bottom of customers' carts — using mirrors, stickers, training, or other detection devices — and then manually scanning those items. With current pressure to increase checkout productivity, it is difficult for cashiers to consistently check for BOB items. Using patented visual pattern recognition technology, LaneHawk is able to detect, identify, and present BOB items directly to the point of sale, enabling cashiers to add those items directly to the transaction.
