In Autumn 2002, Marks & Spencer will become the first UK Company to trial an innovative new till, which enables customers to check out their own shopping, with a view to improving further its customer service and expanding customer choice.
The new NCR FastLane™ machines, branded 'SCOT' (Self Checkout Till) by Marks & Spencer, will allow customers at the trial sites to self-scan and bag their purchases and then pay with cash, debit or credit card or M&S chargecard and to get cash-back.
Unlike other self-scan products in use in the UK, which are all hand-held and require payment via a traditional till, the SCOT till will offer shoppers an additional rapid payment choice when they finish their shopping and provides increased privacy for purchases.
The interactive touchscreen guides shoppers through every stage of the process with visual and verbal prompts. Software designed to weigh the bagged items detects any inconsistencies between what is scanned and what is placed in the bag.
An attendant will be on hand at a central desk for each pod of four SCOTs to help customers with any queries and to facilitate payment by cheque or gift vouchers.
The SCOTs, which are networked into the Marks & Spencer global EPOS system, supplied by Fujitsu, are programmed to recognise the bar code and exact weight of every product in store, from shallots to socks.
The three stores taking part in the trial, which will last twelve weeks, represent a cross-section of the Marks & Spencer store offering:
- Metro Shopping Centre, Gateshead (Out of Town Store)
- Oxford (City Centre Store)
- Uxbridge (Regional Centre Store)
Barry Stevenson, Director UK Retail Stores at Marks & Spencer commented: "We are constantly looking at innovative technology to improve the customer offering, both proactively and in response to customer requests. The new self-checkout tills are being trialled as a way of expanding customer choice, whilst retaining our current till options and freeing up staff time to improve further the service levels in-store."
Self-checkout tills have already achieved significant success in the US with NCR machines already installed with over 30 retailers.
"NCR FastLane has been such a huge success with customers across the Atlantic and Europe that shoppers are choosing to go to stores that offer FastLane over stores which do not" said Alberto Camuri, vice president of NCR's Retail Solutions Division for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South Asia Pacific. "Given NCR's local expertise in supporting this new technology and our long understanding of the UK retail market, we believe FastLane will be as successful in the UK."
In a UK survey undertaken in September 2001 for NCR by Marlin Research, more than 55% of respondents said that they would be likely to use self-service checkouts, were they available, citing shorter queues, more control over transactions and increased privacy as advantages.
- Ends -
For further information:
Bella Pagdin Marks & Spencer Corporate Press Office (020) 7268 1919
Giovanna Puma NCR Press Department (020) 7725 8253
Notes to editors:
1. Images of SCOT are available to download from the Corporate/General subsite of www.mandslibrary.com.
2. Marks & Spencer is the UK's leading clothing retailer with more than 12.4 million square feet of trading space across 312 British stores. The Company also trades on-line at www.marksandspencer.com.
3. The Group employs more than 65,000 people worldwide.
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers. NCR's ATMs, retail systems, Teradata data warehouses and IT services provide Relationship Technology™ solutions that maximize the value of customer interactions. Based in Dayton, Ohio, NCR (www.ncr.com) employs approximately 30,400 people worldwide.
