Company Continues to Provide Industry-Leading Innovation
DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2008--For shoppers in thousands of stores worldwide, the ability to scan, bag and pay for your own items has become synonymous with NCR FastLane(TM) - today's version of the self-checkout solution that NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) first introduced 10 years ago.
"The concept of self-checkout had been around since the late 1980s. But NCR's market entry ushered in a new era for retail self-service," said Mike Webster, NCR vice president for Self-Service Solutions.
No stranger to self-service, NCR had recorded nearly 25 years in the automated teller machine business by early 1998, when its first self-checkout was installed by Ball's Food Stores, based in Kansas City, Kan. Ball's now has the current version of NCR FastLane in more than 25 percent of its store locations and plans to install the system in all new and remodeled stores.
Successfully wedding its self-service heritage and legendary retail store automation experience with its human factors engineering, advanced bar-code scanning technology and point-of-sale integration expertise, NCR has gained recognition as the global self-checkout market leader.
Processing an estimated 2.5 billion consumer transactions a year, NCR FastLane is now found in 16 countries where nearly 50,000 systems have been deployed across multiple store formats by nearly 100 retailers - a list that includes many of the world's largest discount store, supermarket and home improvement chains. An estimated $37 billion of these retailers' annual sales are checked out on NCR FastLane.
Today's on-the-go consumers clearly appreciate and want self-service - with 77 percent of North Americans polled in an NCR survey last year saying they are more likely to do business with organizations that offer self-service.
"NCR FastLane is no small part of the retail self-service success story," Webster said. "From The Home Depot in North America to Tesco in Europe and Aeon in Japan, shoppers around the world have discovered and embraced the convenience of self-checkout with NCR FastLane."
With more than 75 self-checkout-related patents issued and dozens more in process, NCR has introduced numerous innovations and enhancements over the past 10 years. As a result, NCR FastLane is the most flexible and shopper-friendly self-checkout solution in the industry. Its user-interface technology allows consumers to complete their transactions as simply, quickly and intuitively as possible. Capable of supporting as many as six languages concurrently, the multimedia interface uniquely offers animated demonstrations to guide shoppers through their transactions.
In addition, NCR FastLane is available with a variety of unload and bagging choices, accommodating retailer and consumer demand across multiple retail formats in numerous countries.
Among recently introduced NCR FastLane options are the NCR RealScan(TM) 78OFX bar-code scanner, designed to make self-checkout scanning even easier for shoppers, and NCR two-sided thermal receipt printing, which helps retailers reduce their paper roll needs. The new NCR FastLane Order and Pay solution enables retailers who have deployed NCR self-checkout at the front end to offer self-service convenience in other departments of the store such as the deli or bakery.
About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a global technology company leading how the world connects, interacts and transacts with business. NCR's assisted- and self-service solutions and comprehensive support services address the needs of retail, financial, travel, healthcare, hospitality, gaming and public sector organizations in more than 100 countries. NCR (www.ncr.com) is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.
NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.
CONTACT: NCR Corporation
Robert (Kelly) Kramer, 770-623-7215
kelly.kramer@ncr.com
or
Emily Ramsland, 770-623-7874
emily.ramsland@ncr.com
SOURCE: NCR Corporation