The time loss and security risk from cash handling at retail stores is huge. A German furniture chain is testing a high-tech solution.
Can retailers cut down the amount of time it takes to handle cash? And increase their overall security at the same time?
Trials by Hanover furniture retailing chain Poco-Domäne suggest the answer is a resounding yes.
The time lost in handling cash in retailing is huge: the payment process at the checkout takes 15 to 25 seconds.
Then there is reconciliation of takings in the cash drawer at the cash office, often involving personnel-intensive double checks. Ten to 15 minutes are needed for every change of checkout attendant. The takings then have to be consolidated manually and stored in a safe. Further work, as well as lack of transparency, is generated by preparing the cash for removal by cash-in-transit operators, counting it at the cash centre and forwarding it to the central bank.
Even more of a concern to retailers is security of cash from robbery and theft.
German technology company Wincor Nixdorf has developed an end-to-end approach that enables efficient organisation and control of the cash cycle and slashes the cost of cash handling in retailing. The solution consists of hardware, software and services. The concept not only provides closed cash cycles at stores, but also integrates the cash centre and the chain between retailers and banks. The portfolio’s individual components can be expanded incrementally and used in attended or self-service checkout concepts and at the cash office. A new and intelligent banknote storage concept also enables banknotes accepted at retail stores to be dispensed by automated teller machines, since the same storage media are used in systems in retailing and banking.
Security is also a top priority at Poco-Domäne Holding GmbH, with many of the company’s stores the target of armed robberies in recent years.
“The problem is not so much the material damage, which is covered by insurance, but the impact on employees,” says Friedhelm Rudolph, executive director and director of IT and controlling at the furniture company.
“We have to deal with the fact that not only employees who are directly affected often stand down under shock and eventually miss work for a long time, but other colleagues become scared as well.”
As a result, it becomes a challenge in some stores to find people willing to work in the checkout zone. And not only that, business is interrupted and sales dip.
Unlike its other stores, the Poco-Domäne outlet in Hanover has nearly a zero chance of being robbed. Since September 2009, cash handling is automated. Cashiers only register products; customers manage the payment process themselves. Cash is placed in a secure safe integrated into the CINEO POS system.
The cash can’t be removed by checkout personnel but only by authorised personnel per code and with a special key.
Revolutionary approach
The Poco Hanover store is the first retail outlet to pilot Wincor Nixdorf’s Cash Cycle Management Solution. The solution has proven itself not only at Poco-Domäne but with other users as well. Cash is no longer accessible. And potential robbers scouting the area for possible targets quickly realise that there’s no chance of stealing any money in this store.
Poco-Domäne’s strategy to keep cashhandling costs at the lowest possible level is revolutionary. The company has completely automated the cash process at point of sale as well as cash payment, bundling and provision functions in the cash office and even transportation by cash-in-transit (CiT) companies.
Wincor Nixdorf’s concept to minimise processing costs goes beyond the individual store. Instead of having to transport a huge amount of cash from their cash office to a branch of Germany’s Central Bank, retailers can make their intelligent cash cassettes with clearly registered cash amounts available to a cooperating neighborhood bank to replenish ATMs. Cash in an intelligent recycling system saves money for retailers and banks and anyone else dealing with cash.
Fully automated POS
With more than 85 outlets in Germany and two major hubs in Bergkamen and Hardegsen, Poco-Domäne has already taken key steps toward realising this solution at its store in Hanover, initially at point of sale.
The checkout points in the 7000sqm store have been equipped with advanced selfservice technology from Wincor Nixdorf: the iCash 15 for coins and the CINEO C6010 for notes from the company’s brand new Cash Cycle Management Solutions portfolio.
The technology has completely automated coin and banknote payments. And customers have quickly accepted the technology.
“From the very beginning, our customers, including the older ones, have not been afraid to use the technology,” says Rudolph.
The solution offers many benefits. Discrepancies in register receipts, for instance, are a thing of the past because store employees no longer have access to cash.
Since they only scan products, they have more time to advise customers seeking support. Another benefit: time is saved. Cashier shift changes and evening till settlements take only seconds.
“This allows huge flexibility in deploying cashiers and provides opportunities to reduce costs,” Rudolph says.
In addition, the IT director points to special campaigns, such as the ‘Moonlight Shopping’ program, held occasionally in Poco stores. With these types of night programs, employees feel much more comfortable knowing that they don’t have to settle tills after midnight.