Have you ever thought about adding holiday greetings or Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day reminders to your self-checkout systems? Today’s terminals can do so much more to improve shopping experiences than just speed up customer journeys.
It’s that time of year again! Halloween is already in the rearview mirror, and we’re staring down the end-of-year holiday season. You probably already incorporate holidays into your marketing strategy, whether it’s New Year’s, Easter, April Fool’s Day, Star Wars Day (yes, it really exists), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and of course Christmas . Around the globe, there are more than 100 official annual events that people like to celebrate.
For retailers, these seasonal festivities are a great opportunity to increase overall ticket size per customer, as nothing sells better than emotion. Last year, the holiday-season retail sales
surpassed the one trillion-dollar mark, with U.S. households spending an average of $1,536 during the holiday season. In
Europe, retail spending for the holidays in 2020 amounted to roughly 320 billion Euro (only counting retail sales in seven countries: the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Belgium). Of this, 63% was spent in-store.
Seasonal spends are gigantic. So why not leverage the very last step in the consumer journey—checkout and payment—to help drive your holiday sales? Have you ever considered using your self-checkout solutions to increase store turn-over and boost consumer loyalty at the same time during the holiday season?
Just imagine: what if your self-checkout screens featured Halloween characters in the week leading up to October 31? Or what if Santa Claus’ voice could guide customers through their checkout processes and help them leave the store with a warm smile on their face? How about a Happy New Year wish, or reminders for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day to say “Don’t wait until the last minute to celebrate the special person in your life!” With a notification about a discount on sweets and flowers. Explanations around specific products, a short quiz during checkout or quick stories for kids—it’s all possible. Only your creativity is the limit.
Considering the fact that the self-checkout system typically is the last touchpoint in a consumer’s shopping journey, this checkout experience determines whether your stores remain in “good memories” (or not). Seasonal store designs with a lot of creative and appealing decoration are great, but at the end of a shopping trip, the “beep” sound of self-scanning is not the same as a cashier wishing you a “Happy holidays!” or “Happy Halloween!”. So why not let the self-checkout system do the same?
Of course, self-checkout devices are not only about wishing someone a happy (holi)day. First and foremost they enable customers to manage their own shopping journeys, often in a way that feels more efficient and convenient to them. Modern self-checkout environments speed up a customer’s checkout process while avoiding long queues, especially in the busy holiday season. And with only a few simple tweaks that you can make yourself, self-checkout can be turned into a fun and lasting positive experience. No rocket science needed to get this right, at least not with
DN Series™ EASY , the next generation of self-checkout systems from Diebold Nixdorf. These systems include
smart UI software that offers a very rich, graphical experience that can be easily configured to promote your seasonal offers, and offer easy personalization to meet your stores’ branding guidelines. Curious to see how it works?
Here’s a peek at just how spectacularly spooky the self-checkout experience can be.