| | December 20209CIOReviewa part of the total profitability of within our transactions. Customers will uses their phones on our apps to start and finish transactions - whether at lanes, payment terminals, or anyunique location preferred by your best and most profitable shoppers. Some Transaction systems support these analytic platforms and enable profit making investments to become margin makers ­ find them and compare the data.Address increasing costTechnology influences the balance between store (paid) and customer (free) labor in the transaction processes. While labor is the largest cost in any retail transaction ­ recruiting customers to perform this role for free is a worthy goal. According to London-based research firm RBR, - the self-checkout momentum continues, with global installations expected to triple by 2025 to surpass 1.1 million. This trend shows the biggest win in every retail transaction is to have the customer perform the task for free. As new technology is becoming more affordable and convenient for smaller and midsize local retailers ­ the cost to staff checkout locations is rising in our region at a rapid pace. While Walmart and Amazon might get much of the attention when it comes to self-checkout technology -- our retailers are deploying the newest self-checkout technology, even if it's less sophisticated or futuristic than the technology being used by the largest retailers. Self-checkout not only helps retailers keep lanes open ­ it keeps business flowing on unpredicted days. Maybe 3 or 4% of your customers love standing in line visiting with busy clerks and reading product labels ­ but the other 97% are looking at the weather or traffic on their phone and send texts like "waiting in line"! Self-checkout is not a Fix and Forget technology -- fraud, accurate pricing, and age verification will demand attention. One of our retailers acknowledges this challenge and highlights the role that cashiers must embrace in the newer frontend process­they asked their employees and customers for feedback before installing the pilot unit to prepare for the best possible outcome ­ they know the cost of technology will decrease and the cost for labor will increase ­ and are prepared to embrace these changes as a team and recruit loyal and reliable "temporary cashiers" will reduce payment costs one transaction at a time and bring value to their entire community.Our stores embrace Payment as an important touchpoint and invest to make it a safe and profitable enabler. We are looking at the new trends to increase revenue with new products and promotions to build excitement. We know we can improve margins by minimizing non-product related activities from the transaction flow and support dynamic pricing options. Most importantly the local retail business is changing and our workforce is engaged with improving the value of food in our communities and less time corralling cardholders into ques or requiring shoppers to repeat mind numbing procedures every time they explore our services. We change with our customers, are spending more time shop keeping, less time collecting payment ­ and we won't wait in line behind Amazon and Walmart to see what is next!
< Page 8 | Page 10 >