Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2022-05-22_Decathlon_supermarket_in_Sydney,_Australia.jpg
Update from 18.02.2025
RFID Self-Checkout: How Ergonomic Solutions is revolutionizing retail together with Sunmi and Smartstore
RFID technology is fundamentally changing the retail industry by making self-checkouts more efficient, faster and more secure. Customers only have to place their goods in a checkout station - all items are recorded in seconds, which significantly speeds up the payment process and reduces long queues. At the same time, RFID enables precise inventory management in real time, which prevents both overstocking and stock-outs.
Another key benefit is improved theft prevention: RFID tags uniquely identify products and automatically trigger an alarm if they leave the store without authorization.
Successful partnership for innovative self-checkout solutions
With the SpacePole self-checkout kiosk, Ergonomic Solutions offers a flexible, modular and customizable platform for various self-service applications. The solution is compatible with a wide range of devices and helps to make the shopping experience more efficient and convenient.
RFID technology makes consumer goods communicative and offers more service. In every respect.
Retailers know in seconds whether an item is in stock and where the customer can find it. And finally, RFID technology ensures that products can also be tracked over long distances.
Here, radio frequency identification offers far more possibilities than the barcode. With barcodes, contact with the scanner is necessary in order to identify the goods and know how much they cost.
RFID technology, on the other hand, can do this remotely. More precisely, it enables contactless communication. This means that the goods no longer have to be physically swiped over a scanner.
For customers, this not only means that they can find out about the availability of their products more quickly. Innovative self-service solutions are also possible thanks to the smart tags - a blessing for customers who are in a hurry.
The wonderful world of RFID technology
Thanks to coupling in the high-frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum, information transmission is contactless, thanks to the transponder, i.e. the RFID tag filled with information, and the aluminum antenna for the high-frequency signals.
With radio frequency identification, individual products can be scanned without visual contact. Even a very large number of products can be scanned in just a few seconds. But RFID can do more than just communicate across distances. RFID technology also stands for precision. Retailers therefore also benefit from the fact that there are fewer reading errors.
The speed of RFID tags
But retailers are not the only ones who benefit from always having their goods in view, or rather, always knowing that they are in the digital flow of daily sales. Thanks to the triumph of RFID technology, customers also benefit from intelligent self-service solutions that save them time and stress.
Working people are particularly familiar with this. They want to do some quick shopping after work. Or on Saturday. But of course everyone wants to do that. Whether at IKEA or in a sports store, long queues form at the checkout at peak times.
But the customer doesn't want to wait. That's understandable. One way out of this dilemma is the incredible speed of RFID tags and the ability to read the prices of many goods at once.
The customer emancipates himself
RFID technology is ideal for preventing customers from being put off by long waiting times. This is because the intelligent self-service solution gives customers the choice of either standing in line and waiting, because they would rather have a conversation, or having the labels read and leaving the store again quickly.
Consumer shopping behavior is changing rapidly and retailers want to be part of this evolution and offer new, smoother and faster customer experiences. This will make the shopping experience much faster and easier. Most references can be found in Asia, where RFID-enabled stores have been well received for their ease of use.
Decathlon introduces mobile self-checkout
In Germany, too, self-service with RFID technology ensures maximum customer convenience. A sporting goods retailer like Decathlon in particular has recognized this. This is because customers are young and dynamic and don't like queuing.
Self-checkout terminals have therefore been installed in the stores. Here, customers can pay for their sporting goods quickly and conveniently thanks to RFID tags. These are attached to the products as standard.
At the self-checkout, the RFID tag is read without the customer having to hold the product in front of the scanner manually. This "intelligent barcode" ensures that the products are scanned in a matter of seconds.
Smart tags also make life easier for retailers. Thanks to reliable scanning, they can track which goods have left the store. In this way, RFID also becomes a watchdog that can monitor both incoming and outgoing goods. Contactless identification makes it possible.
Dusty? Not at all!
Libraries sometimes have a dusty image. But they were using RFID technology long before Decathlon and Neste. Self-service, for example, is a familiar service for book lovers all over the world. Here, too, queues are avoided and staff have a quick overview.
All books are equipped with "smart labels" and there are usually several scanners available. Here, the customer can scan their ID, place their stack and all the books in the stack are scanned at the same time. RFID is also used at airports, for example to locate checked baggage. Lost items can thus be found again quickly.
Why RFID is worthwhile
Stores that are open around the clock should take note. But other retailers can also increase customer satisfaction. Do you have customers who don't like queuing? These and other reasons speak for the use of self-service solutions with RFID, at least as a supplement to conventional checkouts.
These and other reasons speak in favor of intelligent self-service:
- Secure and fast payment at the checkout increases customer satisfaction.
- With RFID-based self-checkout, all products are scanned simultaneously in just a few seconds. So the purchase is done quickly.
- As a retailer, I benefit from greater security against shoplifting. Losses due to recounting when returning items, fraud or theft of money are also ruled out.
- By using RFID technology, more customers can be served. In addition, the space-saving self-service checkouts enable more capacity in the same store space.
- And last but not least: there are always enough cashiers in the store, even at peak times.
Do you also want to make your store intelligent and transform it into a smart store? Contact us, we at Smartstore are not called that for nothing and have implemented countless projects with our partner https://www.sydesoft.de/, from small to large and from simple to super-complex.
You can find more processes and workflows for organizers of major events here: Smart Venue: Digital Transformation of Event Venues and Smart Stadium: How Technology is Revolutionizing the Fan Experience
If you have any further questions on this topic or would like to make an appointment for a live demo, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us via the contact form at, by e-mail at info@smartstore.com or by phone from Monday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at +4923153350.
Contact:
E-mail: info@smartstore.com
Phone: +4923153350
SmartStore AG
Kaiserstrasse 63-65
44135 Dortmund