A few days before Christmas I went to my favorite supermarket to buy all the good food I needed for the holidays.
A huge number of other customers seemed to have the same idea exactly at the same time, and so the store was crowded with people, most of whom were pushing shopping trolley full of goods. The store had all the check-out lanes open, but still the queues went back into the shelves.
A customer survey conducted by Box Technologies and Intel in the UK shows that around nine out of ten shoppers avoid stores with long queues. 70 percent of the interviewed customers also responded that they might not return to a store if they had to wait there in a queue for a long time.
So how can retail stores avoid long queues even during peak hours?
More (mobile) POS
The first option might be to add more checkouts. On the one hand, this could help cut the queues. On the other hand, how many POSs would a store need in order to avoid long queues at all times? This might also not be cost-effective, as the additional POSs would only be used during peak times; still, they would require stationary POS hardware and space that is valuable, and better used for product placements.
An alternative could be to use mobile POSs for queue busting and customer service. Advanced POS software can run on tablet computers or smart phones, allowing item registration and even card payments. Browser- or app-based, these devices are a good investment as they can also be used for other purposes, for example as store manager’s devices or for inventory management.
The mobile POSs could even be connected to so-called hardware stations that can serve as the connector for POS printers, cash drawers and so on. Multiple mobile POSs can share one hardware station, making them more cost-effective, and less space-consuming than traditional registers.
The mobile POSs might however not be ideal for scanning full shopping trollies and so the staff would pick customers out of the queue that have just a few items. Stationary POSs dedicated to customers with just a few items – fast checkout lanes – would work as well, but it is then up to the customer to queue there, and so there is always the risk that customers don’t follow the rule in order to check out fast.
Retail types like specialty stores with a high service level and fashion stores would be a good match for mobile POSs.
Simple operations, shorter queues
Another option can be to dedicate the majority of POSs to simple checkout processes. Other processes, for example returns or special customer services – like signing up customers for a member management program or taking special orders – could be performed at special service stations. In furniture and DIY retail, these service stations are often present, and even placed all over the sales floor.
Sticking to simple and fast cash management can shorten the time the POS is occupied during shift changes. Even better would be to do all cash management in the back office.
Processes like upselling, cross-selling, item search are necessary in retail, as they improve retailers’ customer-centricity and ability to personalize, and can lead to more sales. On the other hand, keeping in mind that most customers don’t like to wait in a queue, these extra processes can have a negative effect, and so retailers should consider carefully when and how to perform them.
In the case of my shopping trip before Christmas, there was one customer who, surprisingly, might have been happy if the queue had been longer. In front of me was an older gentleman with a little girl. After they joined the queue, the man realized he forgot something, and went back to the shelves leaving the girl in the queue to reserve the position. The girl then moved closer and closer to the POS, and finally had to put the goods on the belt. Anxiously, she looked for her companion, who luckily arrived just as it was time to pay. Maybe that little girl would have been happy if the queue had been even longer – which goes to show that when it comes to customer service, there are no rules without exceptions.
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