Humanity is constantly evolving. We now live in an amazing time when in many areas people are being replaced by machine guns. And even where, as it seems, they will not be able to replace a person for a long time, they can be found. In this article, we will look at what self-service checkouts are. How to use them will also be covered.
General information
So, what is a self-service checkout? This technology has long been known and is widely used in foreign retail chains. Self-checkouts can be found in North America (to a lesser extent in South) and Western Europe. They also penetrate into the space of the former USSR. It can be assumed that in a decade we will meet them even in Africa and Asian countries.
Trade automation allows you to free up human resources and direct people to solve other tasks that are not yet performed by mechanical assistants. It is expected that self-checkout terminals will double their number over the next four years. True, this is only an assumption, since in reality this will be influenced by the expansion of operating networks, the development of technologicalcomponent and overall progress.
Where can you meet them?
Self-service checkouts are most often used in large retail chains. And no wonder - after all, these are large-scale projects that include the supply of sophisticated equipment, as well as the integration of software into a common store account. Just working with the latter is the most difficult and expensive component of such a change. Since you have to spend a lot of money, such a development path is still unprofitable for individual stores or small chains. But if there are quite a lot of objects where this miracle of technology is installed, then they pay off quickly enough. After all, the software component is perfected only for the first trading facility, while in the rest, equipment is simply purchased and connected to an existing system.
Benefits
When self-service checkouts are used and trade automation is introduced, it generates such positive moments:
- Speed up customer service and reduce queues.
- Reducing the burden on cashiers and lowering staff costs.
- Improving the quality of service. When using advanced technologies, the human factor is eliminated, which has a significant impact on the level of service, the speed of functions, and minimizes the number of errors.
- Customer satisfaction. Most people rate their experience with cutting-edge technology positively. is no exception to this andautomatic checkout. During the implementation of this technology, it was noticed that people who interacted with it were more willing to make repeated contact. This is explained not only by saving time, but also by an elementary unwillingness to interact with other people.
- Transferring some of the cashier's functions to the buyer. It is believed that this opportunity allows people to better feel the process of purchasing and increases loy alty.
- Optimization of the sales process. When a self-service area is introduced, it allows you to significantly save sales space for support services and place more goods.
- Fast payback in large stores. The investment is returned through savings on salaries over a period of 12-15 months.
Enhanced video surveillance and weight control technology is used to resist theft.
Introduction on the territory of the Commonwe alth of Independent States
The Russian Federation and Ukraine are doing best here. In the Russian Federation, Auchan has the most experience. Russian experience suggests that people save about 40 percent of their time by self-service. In total, 97% of everyone who interacted with these wonders of automation is satisfied. But a breakthrough has been outlined not only for large stores, but also for small representatives of huge networks. So, self-service checkouts are being installed in Magnit. Initially, it is planned that there will be 2000 of them. This process began in 2016. But given the numberstores, potential benefits and opportunities, it can be assumed that self-checkouts in Magnit will replace people in about five years. Just imagine how much time it will save! Not far behind and "Globe". Self-service checkouts here also receive praise from customers. In Ukraine, the first such technological innovations were installed in Kyiv in December 2013.
Service
For the first time self-checkouts appeared in 1992 in Europe and North America. Therefore, it is impossible to call them something new, especially there. In the third millennium, this technology has received significant development. It can be assumed that in a decade or two, cashiers will be workers on the verge of extinction. In order for this technology to win its market, manufacturers provide broad support for their solutions. In addition to hardware maintenance, they train staff on the specifics of the job. Now there are four main players in this market.
How does it all work?
Self-service checkouts have counting machines that allow you to automate cash flow, which is used in stores. In the future, this system will allow money to be credited immediately to a bank account. Thus, cash is withdrawn in the process of trading. What is even more interesting is that money can be served at least in a bundle or in a handful of coins. To solve various non-standard situations, there is an assistant station, with which you can carry out remotemonitoring what is happening at the point. By comparison, this is essentially a checkout desk.
An important advantage of the equipment is the fact that model assembly has become widespread. If you change the components of the technique, then at the output you can get a very wide range of functionality. True, such machines weigh a lot - about half a ton. Speaking of technology, it can be compared to an assembly line in some ways.
Theft control
This is a pretty important aspect. It happens like this:
- A person scans the item first.
- The system compares the received data with those stored in its database (with a known value).
- The buyer transfers the goods to the package, under which there is a weighing platform.
- If the values of the weights match, then everything is fine. If not, the tech will respond accordingly.
But what if fruits are sold that have different weights? In such cases, significant algorithmic work is carried out. If we talk about its essence in a simplified way, then each barcode is “molded” with a weight and an allowable range of value fluctuations. For some goods it is large, for others it is small.
Software specifics
There is one interesting implementation aspect here. The fact is that there is no program in its classical sense. If we simplify the procedure, then we can conditionally single out the presence of a program that implementsGUI. The buyer, when he clicks on the buttons, calls certain methods. They, in turn, pull up the data structure, where there is all the necessary information such as the name of the product, its price, quantity, and so on. This has its benefits. So you can integrate into any data structure. But there are also disadvantages in the form of implementation restrictions that an interface has. In other words, it is impossible to display information that was not provided earlier.
Conclusion
Such a technique as a self-service checkout is, albeit a small, but still a step in which humanity is getting even closer to the moment when all the usual, monotonous and not requiring creativity work will be shifted to the shoulders of mechanical assistants.
In the meantime, if you look through the eyes of an experienced engineer, you can notice even more problems that have not been solved. So, for example, you still have to maintain security. And no wonder - because otherwise people could just leave, taking the goods with them, and not a single, even the most modern anti-theft system would be able to resist them. Although, seeing how fast technology is developing, we can assume that in the future there will be ideas that solve this problem as well. And then another sphere (trade) will completely pass into the power of technology. Is it good or bad? Rather, the first, because people will be motivated to act more effectively and learn and improve more.
