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Diebold Nixdorf calls its latest innovation "the world's smallest self-checkout concept," because it lets customers withdraw cash or pay for their purchases at a kiosk that's less than 10 inches wide, or the length of one and a half dollar bills.
(Diebold Nixdorf)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Imagine heading to your favorite supermarket and having the store know not only that you're coming in, but what you plan to buy. Then as you walk through the aisles putting items in your cart, you're also scanning them with your phone, which keeps a running tally of how much you're spending as you go.
When you're ready to check out, you bypass the lines at the registers and head straight to the self-checkout terminal, where you pay for your purchases with cash or a credit card swipe, and walk out.
That's the kind of scenario that Diebold Nixdorf, the Summit County-based ATM and bank security company, envisions as it unveils what it calls "the world's smallest self-checkout concept" at the National Retail Federation's NRF BIG Show in New York on Jan. 15-17.
Diebold Nixdorf's new combination ATM and self-checkout concept.
Diebold Nixdorf's latest innovation lets customers withdraw cash or pay for their purchases at a kiosk that's less than 10-inches wide, or the length of one and a half dollar bills. The kiosks take up a fraction of the floor-space of current ATMs and self-checkout registers and combines those abilities within a single unit that can fit almost anywhere, the company said.
"As banks and retailers seek to enhance consumer experiences, the line between physical and digital channels will continue to blur," said Richard Harris, Diebold Nixdorf's vice president for design and new technology incubation, in a statement. "Diebold Nixdorf is uniquely positioned to guide both retailers and financial institutions through this complex ecosystem to deliver the future of connected commerce."
While Diebold's primary customers have always been banks, [the former] "Wincor Nixdorf has an entire suite of retail products that allow customers to scan their purchases in store," including "really cool and interesting functionality" that the recently combined Diebold Nixdorf is just starting to take advantage of, said David Kuchenski, director of business development for Diebold Nixdorf's design and new technology incubation.
"If you think about the shopping process today, it's a very segmented process," he said. The customer creates a shopping list and heads to the store, with limited interaction with the retailer until she gets to the register. "The biggest pain points are finding things in the store, making sure that I don't leave the store without forgetting something, and standing in the checkout line," he said.
Diebold Nixdorf's extreme self-checkout technology will work with its retail mobile app as customers create their shopping lists, "to tell the retailer what I'm going to buy in the store before I even get there," Kuchenski said.
The retailer's app could tell the shopper exactly where those items are in their grocery store, and if they are in stock before she gets there. It could also suggest wine pairings, alert the shopper to unadvertised promotions, or tell him that "that toy you just put on your list takes four 'AA' batteries, so you might want to put some 'AA' batteries on your list."
Customers could pay as they go via their mobile phones, or pay at the end of their shopping trip, using cash, credit, or preloaded mobile credits, without having to take everything back out of their carts. "Now I've just turned my 20-minute shopping trip into a 10-minute shopping trip," and probably increased my loyalty to that retailer, he said.
To prevent shoplifting, customers might have to show their receipts to a clerk at the door, like they do at Sam's Club, or push their carts through scanners that would detect that extra bottle of wine, Kuchenski said.
Retailers would also get real-time data about what its customers are buying. "If I know that 20 people have this item on their shopping lists, I know I probably want to up my stock of that item a little bit," he said.
"We're still very much in the conceptual stage, looking at trends in the industry and where the retail and financial services industries are heading," he said. But by demonstrating their concepts before the world's largest retailers at NRF's BIG Show, Diebold Nixdorf is hoping some of them will want those kiosks in their stores.
Although they make the most sense in supermarkets, where square footage is most valuable, Kuchenski also sees them appearing in big box stores, warehouse clubs, and clothing stores. "Any physical retail store where retailers are trying to connect with their consumers via their mobile devices," he said.