Mobile Point of Sale capabilities are helping to reshape the checkout experience.
Ever since saloon owner James Ritty invented the cash register in 1879 in an effort to stop his employees from pocketing his profits, checking out a customer’s purchases has followed the same basic model. Whether the checkout is in the front of the store, in the back or off to the side it is the last stop before the shopper heads out of the store. Larger format stores and hyper markets may have strategically placed registers in specific departments like jewelry, customer service, sporting goods, hardware, etc depending on store layout.
And in nearly all cases, the checkout lane is set up for the convenience of the retailer rather than the customer. In addition to serving as a storage facility for bags, scissors, paperwork and employee drinks, they function—at least in the minds of many retailers— as the final destination on a shopper’s journey throughout the store. But that’s changing.
Although the concept of a checkout lane has remained largely intact over the years, even as cash registers have evolved from Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier to today’s networked point-of-sale systems, they’re beginning to show their age. Shoppers are demanding a better in store experience, and those lanes just aren’t doing the job.
According to a 2015 study conducted online by Harris Poll and commissioned by image technology company Digimarc, an overwhelming majority of Americans—88 percent— want their store checkout experience to be faster. A combined 50 percent of respondents named slow checkout speeds and long lines as their top grievances. “Checkout is the last opportunity a retailer has to make a positive impression on a shopper,” said Digimarc Chief Marketing Officer Larry Logan when the poll results were released. “Asking customers to endure a lengthy wait to process and pay for their order can spoil what may have otherwise been an enjoyable shopping experience.”
Other disappointing features about the checkout process is a lack of quality human interaction and perceived gratitude. A majority of respondents to the Harris poll—61 percent—felt that clerks focused more on scanning items and less on finding out if they’re satisfied.
With the addition of new technology, retailers now have an opportunity to address those customer concerns, reshape the checkout experience and increase same store sales in the process.
其中One途径就是最大限度地提高平板电脑的移动性。 通过正确的解决方案，平板电脑可以作为平板电脑 POS 系统或信息亭连接到支架上，供客户填写调查、注册和访问忠诚度计划、填写信用申请以及在商店目录中查找商品。 当与企业数据库连接后，该信息亭可用于查看附近地点是否有存货，或是否可将商品送到购物者家中。 将平板电脑与支付设备相结合，平板电脑可用于将典型的“无尽通道”功能转换为允许客户订购和支付商品的交易，而无需排队。
"零售空间是宝贵的，但由于空间有限，店主无法在货架上摆放各种尺寸和颜色的产品。 基于平板电脑的信息亭解决方案支持无尽的过道类型应用程序，并且能够实现企业的全渠道履行目标，这对于企业的盈利能力至关重要。”总部位于北卡罗来纳州夏洛特的 InVue 首席执行官 Jim Sankey 表示，InVue 是一家创新销售支持和安全的全球提供商为零售商和商业零售企业提供解决方案。
“Using a tablet as a mobile, interactive sales tool prevents that customer from leaving and going to your competition, or worse yet, using their phone while in your store to buy the same product on a competitor’s website.”
As retailers seek ways to remain relevant in an era of e-commerce and mobile commerce, one of the ways they can differentiate themselves is via the customer experience. Econsultancy’s 2017 Digital Trends Report, published in association with Adobe, calls this the “experience economy.”
报告称，客户体验被认为是企业从竞争对手中脱颖而出的主要途径。 在报告调查中，绝大多数受访者表示，客户体验是他们最激动人心的机遇。 尽管平板电脑信息亭有助于重塑客户体验，但其真正的价值并不在于将其作为固定设备。 相反，将平板电脑从支架上取下并将其用作辅助销售工具的能力则大大提升了平板电脑的价值。
"将移动功能添加到店内技术中，将互动式客户体验转变为人际客户体验，这将增加店内交易量。
这将增加店内交易量，"Sankey 说。 invue's产品包括其平板电脑 POS 系统，该系统具有 3 轴查看功能、可选的移动 POS 设备集成以及用于添加读卡器和扫描枪等外围设备的 USB 2.0 端口。 通过软件控制和平板电脑快速拆卸技术，可实现审计和无限移动性。 平板电脑 POS 系统 为集成的平板电脑和移动 POS 设备提供电源和安全性，可容纳 8 英寸至 13 英寸的平板电脑。
“Mobility enables customer interactive applications to become technical sales tools,” Sankey said. “These tools enable store associates to build value around the product, your store brand and provide an improved customer experience driving increased profitability around each sale.”
This allows the associate to capture the sale at the point of decision for the customer. There is no opportunity to abandon the cart while waiting in line and causing you to lose the sale. All this while improving the customer experience which gets them to want to come back.
Along with creating new opportunities and new ways of interacting with customers inside the story, the mobility features of a tablet kiosk solution offer new opportunities
outside the store as well.
Mobile applications enable the experience to happen inside or outside a store or restaurant. Enabling payment devices to be mobile with a tablet, the sales tool can be table side, pool side or at a remote special event. This enables the same secure payment you have in the store to go mobile. You are improving the customer experience with the security you expect around payments as well as expanding the use of your loyalty programs.
“The ability to participate in those events to enable that customer experience is an important part of remaining competitive,” Skip Hinshaw, Vice President of Commerical said. “I’ve now gone from a brick-and-mortar location to a situation where I can literally carry my store around with me in my hand.”