LONDON — NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) announced that Tesco, one of the top three international retailers in the world with more than 2,300 stores, has installed 285 NCR FastLane self-checkout units in 96 United Kingdom stores. This is the largest deployment of self-checkout devices in Europe to date, according to a news release.
Self-checkout, which enables shoppers to scan, bag and pay for their purchases themselves, is being used in Tesco's Metro (compact stores located in busy areas), Superstore and Extra (hypermarkets) locations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
"Over the last two years we have used self-checkout to help improve customer service throughout our stores," said Attila Winstanley, productivity director for Tesco. "Shoppers of all ages have taken to the technology, scanning all sorts of goods ranging from food and clothes to pharmaceuticals and electronics. Self-checkout has also enabled us to free up more staff time to help in other areas of the store or open more checkouts."
Tesco's self-checkout lanes on average process 19 percent of total transactions with an average basket size of 5 to14 items.
"Tesco's experience with self-checkout is backed by a study conducted for NCR by IDC that shows consumers see real value in the technology," said Alberto Camuri, NCR's vice president for Retail Solutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "UK consumers cited shorter queues (68 percent), faster checkout (68 percent) and having a choice on how to check out (66 percent) as the top benefits of self-checkout. The research also shows that Tesco's wider service improvements are very welcome by UK shoppers."
