Case Study: Assisted Shopping At European Supermarket

The Zebra Cameo printers are mounted on a custom cart along with Xybernaut touch-screen PC, and Dione payment terminal. Associates push the cart to an appropriate location for the customer and go through a series of menu options to assist the customer. This may include taking payment for an item on promotion or for an article such as clothing, which the customer wishes to purchase separately to his main purchase. Or it can entail checking on stock, verifying a price, or printing out a store map to locate an item that the customer wants.

The store's merchandise managers wanted to address both challenges at the same time. They wanted to encourage associates to sell goods on the sales floor, rather than waiting for customers to buy. They wanted to make the application a means to assist customers, as well as a means to take payment and bag goods. Customers are known not to worry about paying several times for purchases within the same store, especially if their purchases are of a significant value.

If the retailer can increase the purchase rate of promotions and bulky or soft goods which customers dislike carrying through the checkout, by just a few percent, the system is paid for in months.