IBM Checkout Environment for Consumer-Service software

Tags: Kiosks / Self-Service, Self-Checkout

Type: White Paper

Consumers today are taking advantage of an increasing number of self-service options that add convenience to their daily lives, and retailers have taken notice—not only because of the consumer demand a more convenient, faster checkout experience but also because these technologies can produce valuable advantages for a business’s bottom line.

After all, self checkout solutions can facilitate:

better customer service
increased customer loyalty
improved labor utilization
increased sales
substantial return on investment

However, many self checkout applications fail to deliver these benefits because of clunky integration approaches, rigid proprietary solutions or outdated methodologies. At their best, they take control away from the retailer, but at their worst these solutions can degrade your system’s reliability.

And when your POS requires changes— which it almost inevitably will—you’ll likely have to invest more time and money working with your vendor to reintegrate so you can continue to present a consistent customer experience. Your vendor prospects will probably be slim because there is limited support for your proprietary solution.

But to keep pace with changing marketplace dynamics, you need a flexible self checkout solution that can quickly integrate with all of your systems and applications—from the POS to the back office. You also need the solution to be customizable so you can differentiate your customer experience from your closest competitors. If your self checkout system is easy to support, you’ll be able to stay focused on your business goals instead of worrying about the technology that supports day-to-day operations. And, of course, the easier your self checkout solution is to use, the more consumers will embrace it—paving the way to higher utilization and a greater return on investment.