Tesco orders electronic point of purchase displays for milestone store

Tesco has ordered 2,500 electronic point of purchase displays (EPoPs) from ZBD for its latest milestone store. Continuing a relationship that has already seen ZBD's displays trialled in two Tesco stores in Central and Southern England, the new orders will be deployed in the dry groceries area.

Tesco's Mike McNamara, operations development director said: "Tesco are pleased to be working again with ZBD for our trial of electronic shelf edge labels (ESELs). The technology is great for helping to improve our customers' shopping experience and making our store staff's jobs simpler. From our previous in-store experience we believe ZBD's ESEL displays can meet these criteria."

ZBD's EPoP displays enable retailers to deliver accurate, up to date product, pricing and promotional information across the store wirelessly and in real time. The EPoPs use a patented technology to offer content-rich graphics, zero power performance with minimal installation requirements and ease of operation.

www.zbd.co.uk

METRO Group expands RFID portals

Checkpoint Systems has announced it will provide RFID portals for 200 more Real hypermarkets belonging to the METRO Group in Germany in 2008.

Under the terms of the first agreement, Checkpoint will equip another 200 Real hypermarkets across Germany with its RFID portals. This follows the deployment in 2007 of the portals at more than 100 Real hypermarkets. The portals at the stores will be used to track pallets as they arrive to improve supply chain efficiency. Subsequently the same portals will be used for case level tracking.

"As we move forward with our plans to deploy RFID technology across our operations, Checkpoint Systems has proven to be a valued and trusted partner," said Dr. Gerd Wolfram, managing director of MGI METRO Group Information Technology. "Checkpoint's advanced RFID knowledge and integration services continue to play a key role in our RFID implementation."

METRO Group has been a pioneer in the use of RFID in the retail industry since 2004, when the company announced it would begin using RFID throughout its supply chain to improve inventory visibility and enhance the customer's shopping experience. Checkpoint has been a partner in that effort, providing technology for METRO Group's Future Store Initiative, RFID pilot projects and deployments.

www.checkpointeurope.co.uk

Card fraud losses up by 25 per cent

2007 card fraud figures released this week by APACS, the UK payments association, show that total card fraud losses rose by 25 per cent in the past year to £535.2m. A key driver behind this is the 77 per cent increase (up £90.5m) in fraud committed overseas by criminals using stolen UK card details, which typically occurs in those countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN. Fraud abroad now accounts for over one third (39 per cent) of total card fraud losses.

Chip and PIN continues to have a positive effect on card fraud committed in the UK. Over the past three years losses on face-to-face transactions on the UK high street have fallen by two-thirds from £218.8m in 2004, to £73.0m last year. 2007 figures also show that fraud on lost and stolen cards (£56.2m) and mail non-receipt fraud (£10.2m) are at their lowest levels for 10 years.

Counterfeit fraud losses have increased by 46 per cent but the vast majority of this fraud is due to criminals stealing card details in the UK to make counterfeit magnetic stripe cards for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN. The UK banking industry continues to encourage other countries around the world to upgrade to chip and PIN. This type of fraud will also become more difficult when the European banking industry meets its target to complete its chip card rollout by 2010.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, commented, "Although card fraud levels have now begun to go up again due to fraud abroad and card-not-present fraud losses, chip and PIN has proven to be an undoubted success in reducing card fraud on the UK high street. And, as more countries follow our lead and upgrade to chip and PIN, the opportunities for criminals to use our stolen magnetic stripe details overseas will decrease".

www.apacs.org.uk

Halfords.com launches 'reserve online, collect in store' service

Halfords have been working with IT consulting company Salmon, to develop a multi-channel capability which provides customers with the choice to buy and collect goods when, where and how they like.

Halfords.com has now synchronised online ordering and store fulfilment and will be rolling out its 'Reserve and Collect' service through its network of stores nationwide. Customers will be able to choose to reserve online and collect in store, in addition to ordering online for home delivery. Early indications suggest the initiative has been a success, with over 100,000 orders taken online between November 2007 and January 2008, prior to the national rollout.

Halfords decided to implement the changes in order drive profitability and growth, and differentiate the Halfords brand further. They approached JTM Partners, to create the look and feel of the new checkout, and Salmon to develop the schematics and functional dynamic pages using CSS, XHTML and J2EE.

Halfords.com customers can now choose from a range of stores for collection based on entering their postcode or town name and will be able to mix home delivery and store collection within a single transaction. They will be given a list of their nearest stores and the distance to that store, along with stock availability and delivery methods available.

Jon Asbury, channel development manager for Halfords said, "It is very important for us to be able to predict customer's expectations building our customers loyalty and enticing new online shoppers. To do this we knew we had to organise the business around the customer and deliver a consistent brand experience no matter how our customers choose to shop with us. We can now provide a quality shopping experience any time, any place, anywhere and have a business model in place that will support long term, sustainable growth and profitability."

www.salmon.com