News | January 11, 2011

Fujitsu And Kroger Bring Revolutionary Self-Checkout Concept To The Retail Market

Kroger's "Advantage Checkout" Concept Aims to Deliver Customer-Friendly Checkout Experience and Reduce Expenses

National Retail Federation Convention – Fujitsu recently announced the unveiling of a revolutionary checkout technology that significantly reduces checkout times, improves customer experience and reduces operational costs for retailers. The Kroger Co., the nation's largest traditional grocery retailer, is currently evaluating the new technology in a limited number of its stores. Live product demonstrations are available at NRF in Fujitsu's booth #429 from Jan. 10-13.

News Highlights

  • Kroger is working with Northrop Grumman Corp.'s business unit, Adaptive Optics Associates, and in discussions with Fujitsu to commercialize the Advantage Checkout system for use in Kroger stores and to bring the concept solution to the general market. Key benefits of Advantage Checkout include:
    • Designed for reliability and ease of checkout, the concept reduces checkout time and greatly enhances the customer checkout experience
    • Revolutionizes the front end customer checkout experience by providing the customer with a choice of high touch concierge level of full service or a fast and accurate self-checkout experience
    • Product identification rates of 98+%. Has the ability to effectively manage both exceptions and restricted items while reducing shrink, and improving data integrity
    • Potentially reduces the number of checkout lanes, allowing retailers the flexibility to reinvest associate labor in service departments and other value added activities, reclaim valuable floor space for additional merchandising and selling opportunities
    • Enables the recognition and differentiation of stacked items and/or side-by-side items even if barcodes are hidden.
  • See the Advantage Checkout concept and other Fujitsu retail solutions in action at the NRF Convention and Expo in New York, Jan. 10-13, at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in booth #429. Fujitsu and partners will demonstrate how their offerings help retailers in North America reduce operating costs, apply technology and business intelligence tools to improve sales and employee performance, and streamline operations from supply chains to the point-of-sale.

Quotes
Chris Hjelm, CIO, The Kroger Co.:
"We are currently evaluating and looking to expand the Advantage Checkout into additional Kroger stores to determine its ultimate potential. The response from both customers and associates has exceeded our expectations. We continue to see a steady increase in use of our Advantage Checkout lanes. Customers are making repeat trips and choosing the Advantage Checkout because of its many enhancements to the shopping experience. These enhancements include: increased scanning and bagging speed and accuracy, minimizing of queuing for the payment process and the opportunity for improved associate engagement in both full service and self-checkout modes. We believe this system has the potential to revolutionize the front-end experience in our retail stores, providing a superior checkout experience for our customers and associates."

Executive Vice President of the Global Retail Business, Fujitsu America:
"Fujitsu is proud to be considered by Kroger, our long term Self Checkout technology partner, to bring this new technology to their stores and the general marketplace. It is a great pleasure to work directly with Kroger to deliver innovative solutions that are truly the state of the art."

About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of ICT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 170,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$50B) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For more information, please see: www.fujitsu.com.

Fujitsu America, Inc. is a leading ICT solutions provider for organizations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Fujitsu enables clients to meet their business objectives through integrated offerings including consulting, systems integration, managed services and outsourcing for enterprise applications, data center and field services operations, based on server, software, storage and mobile technologies.

Fujitsu provides industry-oriented solutions for manufacturing, retail, healthcare, government, education, financial services and communications sectors. For more information, visit: http://solutions.us.fujitsu.com/

SOURCE: Fujitsu America, Inc.