FRANKLIN, Tenn.— Supermarkets plan to increase spending on self-checkout systems and workforce management software in the next 12 months, according to a new report from IHL Consulting Group, retail analyst and consultancy firm.
"Self-checkout is the prominent focus of hardware capital spend this year for grocers," said Greg Buzek, president of IHL Consulting Group. "These systems are quite expensive in comparison to most other capital projects and the purchases are dominating IT budgets this year. In terms of software spend, grocers say their largest store-level software spend is focused on workforce management solutions as they re-align labor needs with self-checkout installations."
Some of the report's findings include:
- Thirty-one percent of the sample planned to install self-checkout systems in 2005 and a total of 50 percent plan to do so by June 2006.
- Grocers are planning to upgrade to self-checkout before replacing aging POS hardware.
- Once self-checkout is installed, POS hardware and software are their next big purchase in most cases.
- There is a shift in the purchase intentions of POS systems. Forty-three percent now say they will buy POS hardware and software from different vendors in their next purchase.
- Forty-four percent are planning new workforce management solutions in the next year and over 40 percent are planning new kiosk implementations at the store level by June 2006.
