July/August 2006 The winner of this year's most innovative in-store technical solution award at the recent Retail Solutions exhibition was Gunnebo's SafePay, an automated cash handling system.

An automated cash handling system comprises both coin and note recycling units. These can be combined in various ways. At the traditional checkout shoppers are encouraged to enter coins directly into the coin recycler then hand over notes to the till operator for processing by the note recycler. The alternative is where the customer uses complete self-payment and only the goods are scanned by the checkout assistant. Removing the checkout assistant altogether allows both scanning and payment - as is commonly found with self-scan terminals. Going one stage further, German retailer Real has separated the scanning and payment processes completely by installing a payment island.

From a retailer perspective, automated cash handling allows greater monitoring and security of cash, eliminates cash shrinkage, provides a full audit trail, delivers complete up-to-the-minute information on cash levels and also 'on-demand' Cash-In-Transit services.

At Coop Norden traditional checkout and payment is used with SafePay automated cash handling. "We expect annual savings of around £51,000 (700,000 SEK) per store as a result of more secure and faster cash handling in our stores," says Kay Arne Nedrejord, manager of the COOP Obs store in Arendal. "However, the main benefit is the safer and ergonomically sounder work environment in our stores," he added.

When integrated with chip and pin card payment, some retailers are using automated cash handling as part of queue busting strategy. Rewe retail group, one of Germany's leading retailers, is one such. At the experimental Rewe supermarket in Donzdorf near Stuttgart, customers are encouraged to take charge of payment for their shopping. Whilst their shopping is being scanned and packed, customers can feed notes and cash into the cash handling system or use the separate chip and pin system for card payments. Change is dispensed from the machine automatically. This new approach frees up the checkout assistant from all cash handling duties, enabling them to scan shopping faster, spend more time interacting with customers and help them to pack their shopping, something Rewe hope will speed up the checkout process.

From day one, Rewe has reported immediate productivity benefits from using automated cash handling. They have seen a reduction in the workload for back office staff. In addition, automation of cash handling simplifies end-of-day and start-of-day processes, as cashiers no longer need to cash up their tills. Supermarket manager

Rene Guntner simply has to refill the checkouts with coins in the morning if needed and empty any surplus notes in the evening. "I have nothing to do with the checkout all day long" remarked supermarket manager Rene Guntner. The SafePay cash and note recycling units ensure that the checkouts can sustain themselves, reducing expensive 'buy-ins' of cash.

Real, part of the METRO Group, has completely separated the payment process from scanning the goods at the checkout. In the first trial of its kind in Germany, the Real store near Ratingen has installed three scanning lanes and four payment desks as part of an effort to reduce queues at the checkout. Shopping is scanned at the checkout, either by the customer or a shop assistant, which then produces a bar-coded sales slip for the customer. The customer then takes the slip to an IBM based payment kiosk where they can choose to pay by card or pay with cash using the SafePay system.

Thomas Ziegler, Administrative Director of Real, a subsidiary company of METRO and project leader, said that Real is looking for "additional new possibilities, to speed up the whole check-out process and avoid queues at the payment kiosks". Real believe that combining three scanning machines with four checkout desks will give them the highest customer throughput.

Interestingly giving the customer more control over the scanning and the payment process has been met with high levels of customer acceptance. Factors such as shorter queues, faster checkout, privacy, greater accuracy and a lack of interaction with checkout staff are cited as benefits. From a retailer perspective, self-scan and payment terminals, whether combined or separated require less staff. On average one member of staff is needed per four self-scan and payment terminals, and when this incorporates cash recycling, as with NCR's FastLane, the administration is reduced even further, allowing more staff to be released for other customer facing activities.

Contact
Gunnebo (UK)
www.safepayuk.com