Clever – Mobile Checkout

Retail chains are looking to cut the time spent serving customers to a minimum. The biggest challenge retailers face is controlling product purchases and payments. Help is on the way with new technologies such as the mobile self-service checkout CLEVE®.

Mobile Self-Checkout

Developed by MAGO, it was one of the hits at the recent EuroShop trade fair in Dusseldorf. Many visitors to the company’s stand looked at the device with keen interest and asked about its functionality. “We’re moving forward. In a world of accelerating market dynamics, we create cutting-edge solutions that address the challenges of today’s retail. Our tools not only improve the efficiency of daily store operations, but also make everyday shopping easier for customers. One of those tools is the mobile self-service checkout CLEVE®,” says Tomasz Dwojak, director of the commercial division of MAGO Group.

CLEVE® is a kind of combination of a self-service checkout and a shopping cart. But apart from the frame and wheels, the device is equipped with a number of innovative technologies. These include a touchscreen computer that acts as a graphic interface, a scanner built into the cart handle that can read EAN and QR codes, and a certified scale. It also has an LED lighting system that indicates the current status of the checkout and the mode in which it is operating.

COMMUNICATION BY LIGHT

Using the mobile self-service checkout has been made as simple as possible. All in order to make the whole process of shopping and paying fast and easy. In principle, the device is connected with the application of a specific retail chain. The customer unlocks it by scanning the QR code on the cart screen. At that moment, the LED light on the cart changes colour from green (available) to blue (active). Then the customer attaches a specially designed multiple-use bag to the cart and starts shopping. They scan products and put them in the bag, and these are verified using the scale mentioned above. The producer has also considered the issue of how to check the age of a customer who is buying alcohol. If a tin or bottle of an alcoholic beverage is put in the bag, the LED light on the device starts flashing orange. This is a sign for store personnel to come and check the buyer’s age. Of course, the customer can continue shopping, because their age can be verified at any time up to the moment of payment.

When the customer is finished shopping, they have two ways to pay – through the application of a given chain using their telephone and CLEVE®, or at a self-service checkout using a traditional payment card. What’s important is that there’s no need to repack products. The customer touches them only once, when they take them from the shelf. After paying, all they have to do is unfasten the bag, leave the store and leave the cart by the gate. During the payment phase, the LED light on the cart changes to red.

“CLEVE® is a breakthrough solution, allowing shoppers to move through the shopping experience on their own, practically without any support from personnel. The great thing about the CLEVE® cart is that it makes lining up a thing of the past. Shopping also becomes quicker and more efficient – you don’t need to pack, unpack and repack goods three times. You only touch them once, at the moment you decide to buy them,” explains Michał Pajączek, Technology Manager at the MAGO Group.

BENEFITS FOR RETAILERS

The CLEVE® mobile self-service checkout is mainly intended as a response to the most important challenges now facing trade – the costs of doing business, and guaranteeing customers a satisfying shopping experience. Its biggest asset is to reduce retail chains’ operating costs. This mainly means reducing labour costs. By introducing CLEVE® mobile self-service checkouts in a store, there is no need to have large numbers of cashiers. Employees can be re-assigned to other tasks, and when there’s a shortage of hands to work, the mobile checkout becomes

a kind of support for the store staff. It also means saving on the costs associated with running traditional tills or self-service checkouts. There can be fewer of them in the store. Moreover, CLEVE® technology gathers a lot of information about a store’s customers. It tracks the shopping path – when and what products are bought, and what categories are discarded most often. In that way, the store can better tailor its offer to its customers. It’s also easier to keep a handle on stocking and plan orders of goods.

But that's not all. CLEVE® also makes interactivity with the customer possible. Thanks to the screen installed on it, retailers can display personalised advertising content created on the basis of existing shopping history or the products currently in the bag. If a customer puts in, say, beer, the device might suggest a complementary offer of breadsticks or potato chips at a promotional price. This is a good way of increasing the value of what’s in the basket through up-selling and cross-selling techniques without the need to set up traditional POS materials by the shelves. Additionally, a store can promote recent fashionable and important trends connected with ecology. With the reusable bag, the store reduces the number of plastic bags it sells.

THE CUSTOMER ALSO BENEFITS

CLEVE® is being promoted with the slogan: “FUTURE DOESN’T WAIT IN LINE”. This clearly reflects what retail chain customers will gain thanks to the device. Above all, fast and hassle-free shopping. No need to wait in line, and payment can be made at any time, practically anywhere in the store. No need to unpack and repack products from the shelf to the cart, from the cart to the belt, and from the belt to the bag. And because the cart and app are integrated, it’s possible to offer customers more precisely selected products and promotions that ensure they are more satisfied with their visit to the store.

READY FOR WORK

The device is now ready for use, and tests will soon begin in one retail chain. Importantly, MAGO is saying that this is not a closed design. It can be modified to suit the needs of particular chains and the customers that frequent them. The version shown in Dusseldorf contains a battery that allows it to work continuously for 17 hours. That’s more than enough for a full day of store operations. At EuroShop, the world’s largest retail outlet technology and equipment fair, the mobile self-service checkout was met with great interest. This means that the producer astutely foresaw a certain trend, and is offering something that may soon prove to be a real market gamechanger. The interest the product is attracting means that the device may soon be used in many stores