DISPLAYS THAT REGISTER

DENISE ZIMMERMAN

Retailers are putting their best interface forward with graphic point-of-sale displays that help shoppers track purchases while boosting productivity in the checklane.

Full-screen color computer monitors at the front end are becoming increasingly popular -- and affordable. Retailers told SN the devices quickly pay for themselves by enhancing customer service, cashier support and price integrity, all of which add up to speedier transactions.

Companies investing in more sophisticated shopper displays cite several benefits:

Shopper-friendliness: Monitors displaying multiple items that scroll along with running subtotals allow shoppers to follow their transactions more closely and instill confidence that they're being charged properly.

Cashier support: Graphic imaging software supports produce identification, while advanced product search functions eliminate shelf-edge price checks, speeding checklane productivity and bolstering accuracy.

Marketing opportunities: Retailers can augment frequent shopper programs and promote in-store departments and services with graphic programs. Some retailers also plan to generate additional

revenue by selling the video display space to vendors for advertising.

Even companies not yet ready to replace their two-line displays with personal computers, such as Smitty's Super Valu, Phoenix, are looking for ways to increase the functionality of existing equipment. "My goal is to display the product name on one line plus any special discount through our frequent shopper program on the second line," said Gary Kroupa, Smitty's director of management information systems. Smitty's current setup highlights frequent shopper discounts in red ink on the cash register receipt. A system upgrade, however, would be better, he said, "because the customer could see the discount as a product's being scanned, vs. looking at a cash register tape after the fact."

This heightened concern for customer convenience is driving retailers to upgrade or replace POS displays. However, distinguishing between function, like the ability to display running subtotals, and what might be perceived as flash, like full-motion video, is not so easy. "If it's going to help the cashier, it'd be something we'd want to do. But I think if you put more flash out there, the customer's not going to appreciate it," said Bob Marcinkiewicz, retail systems manager at 58-store National Super Markets, Hazelwood, Mo.

"But that's why you get into a test mode -- to see what happens" in customer acceptance, he added.

One chain whose tests of advanced POS displays yielded positive results is Community Cash Stores, Spartanburg, S.C. The full-screen monitors "give the customer the benefit of seeing the last 15 items we scanned. The items scroll up the page so they have more time to see what we're doing," said Marty Yarborough, director of management information systems. "It keeps a copy of the receipt scrolling up the display. "We're also able to show a running total for the order so customers can tell at all times how much money they've spent as we scan the items," Yarborough continued. The ability to easily scroll back to a previously displayed item at the shopper's request is another benefit of the system.

Displaying multiple items of a customer's order is also a priority at 120-store Delchamps, Mobile, Ala., said Larry Abreo, vice president of MIS.

"It's very hard for a customer to follow retail items and prices on a one-line display," he said. "A running receipt containing up to 10 items on the screen makes it easy for the customer to follow what's happening to their order and also displays any credit they might have in a much more intelligible manner, whether it's coupons or refunds."

Delchamps and Community Cash share more in common than computer displays at the point of sale: Both chains have recently migrated away from a proprietary mainframe environment to an open-systems architecture using industry standard computer hardware.

That trend toward open systems, said one industry observer, is allowing retailers to source computers and peripherals from the open market rather than from a proprietary vendor. In so doing, hardware prices are dropping and retailers are more willing to invest in front-end upgrades.

"For 350 bucks you can buy a nice, full-screen, SuperVGA color monitor. It's very inexpensive," the source said. "It wasn't that long ago that you paid as much if not more for that little two-line display."

Retailers using computer monitors to display full-color images of produce and item search functions for price verification are seeing gains in both productivity and profitability.

Alphanumeric item search capability at the POS, for example, eliminates the time, labor and inconvenience of calling for a physical "price check" when a product does not scan properly. Using search software programs, a cashier inputs the first few characters of a product name and the monitor displays several lines of products matching the description. The cashier then selects the correct item and price -- in full view of the shopper.

Another price verification function available through special software programs linked to full-screen monitors is produce imaging, whereby inputting the word "lettuce," for example, will bring up color photos of different types of lettuce -- and the corresponding scale price.

Confusion in pricing "is where supermarkets lose profitability, because you either charge the customer too much and lose that customer or, as cashiers typically do, err on the side of the [lower price] and it costs the supermarket tremendous profits," said the source.

Especially important for chains like Community Cash is ensuring that both shopper and cashier have equal access to viewing images and information on the monitor, rather than having a display oriented only to the cashier.

"The way we position our monitors in our stores is that when the cashier and the customer are both looking at it, their faces are about 18 inches apart, so it creates interaction between the two," Yarborough said. "It's almost directly in front of the cashier at eye level and turned at a 45-degree angle so that the customer and cashier can both see it."

Community Cash will investigate other enhancements such as displaying cost savings linked to its new frequent shopper program. Later, Yarborough said -- "and these plans are sketchy" -- the chain may also sell advertising space on the monitors.

Also venturing into that territory is Brookshire Bros., Lufkin, Texas, whose POS upgrade at all 64 stores includes full-screen color computer monitors. For now, the chain is promoting in-store departments and services through a screen-saver program whose graphics and messages are triggered when a monitor is idle.

"It displays the services we offer our customers, like Western Union, debit, credit, postage stamps and things like that," said Thomas Lowther, director of retail scanning.

Lowther said Brookshire Bros. will also explore selling advertising space on the monitors, "but that's in the future. We're just getting started."

Bill Rohal, MIS director at G.A. Love Foods, Burlington, Ontario, agrees that new marketing opportunities open up with use of full-screen monitors.

"A register is a register is a register, as far as the old standard function. So if you're looking at what will be the future in POS devices, it's really the marketing orientation," he said.

G.A. Love Foods is evaluating POS upgrade possibilities for its six stores, with an eye toward applications for a frequent shopper program and market basket analysis, said Rohal.

Selling space to vendors, however, gives him pause.

"There are some guys pushing promotion and advertising in the checkout, but that's something we really haven't looked at. I think that's one area you have to play carefully by ear, to see what the reactions are from your customers," Rohal noted.