HANNOVER, Germany, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The European market for self- checkout systems is on the verge of significant growth, according to NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), because shoppers want more convenience and retailers are looking for a rapid return on technology investments.
"Europeans are well known for being value- and quality-conscious consumers, but they also are among the busiest. As self-checkout becomes more pervasive, shoppers will increasingly have the option to scan their own items instead of standing in a conventional checkout line," said Alberto Camuri, vice president of NCR's Retail Solutions Division for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia Pacific. "Just as they have become avid users of ATMs, we believe Europeans will soon expect their preferred supermarkets or hypermarkets to offer self-checkout.
"Moreover, retailers are recognizing that self-checkout can quickly pay for itself in a number of ways," Camuri said. "For example, store employees can be utilized in other parts of the store or serve customers in other ways. And self-checkout lanes are available whenever the store is open, which helps ease scheduling difficulties."
Data from NCR retail industry customers shows that 20 to 30 percent of shoppers in a store will use self-checkout, which reduces the size of queues overall. "Shorter queues increases shopper satisfaction and loyalty, which also improves the return on investment for retailers," Camuri added.
NCR currently has self-checkout installations or plans for installations with 26 food and general merchandise retail customers, including Kmart, Albertson's, Wakefern and Shop Rite in the United States and Migros Turk in Turkey.
Migros Turk officials report their customers are becoming big fans of self-checkout.
"It's fair to say customers at these stores have embraced self-checkout, and some actually prefer it over traditional cashier-assisted checkout," said Erkin Yilmaz, assistant general manager of Migros Turk. "In fact, a few shoppers are so enthusiastic, they will wait to use self-checkout even if other lanes are open with nobody in line."
Yilmaz said his company is even considering plans for a "self-service" store with six self-checkout units and just one traditional checkout lane. "In addition to Migros Turk, we are very pleased with the positive response of other European retailers to NCR Self-Checkout, and have received early commitments that we expect to announce soon," Camuri said.
The new NCR Self-Checkout E-Series is being demonstrated at CeBIT 2001, the world business fair for office automation, information technology and telecommunications.
Rather than a "one size fits all" approach, NCR Self-Checkout is compact and offers multiple payment and layout options. "NCR's flexible and configurable solution can further maximize a retailer's front-end productivity while delivering greater customer satisfaction," Camuri said.
NCR is a global leader in self-service solutions, and an estimated 20 billion self-service transactions are conducted on NCR systems each year. Microsoft has honored NCR for innovation in the self-checkout and growing Web kiosk markets. The Nilson Report has recognized NCR as the leader in ATM shipments, and Venture Development Corporation has ranked NCR as the global leader in stationary bar code scanner shipments for retail point of sale.
About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a leader in providing Relationship Technology(TM) solutions to customers worldwide in the retail, financial, communications, manufacturing, travel and transportation, and insurance markets. NCR's Relationship Technology solutions include privacy-enabled Teradata(R) warehouses and customer relationship management (CRM) applications, store automation and automated teller machines (ATMs). The company's business solutions are built on the foundation of its long- established industry knowledge and consulting expertise, value-adding software, global customer support services, a complete line of consumable and media products, and leading edge hardware technology. NCR employs 32,900 in more than 100 countries, and is a component stock of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. More information about NCR and its solutions may be found at www.ncr.com .
NCR and Teradata are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries. SOURCE NCR Corporation
CONTACT: Mario Bonardo of NCR Europe, +39-2-47904715, or mario.bonardo@ncr.com ; or Robert "Kelly" Kramer of NCR USA, or 770-623-7215, or kelly.kramer@ncr.com /
