Long lines at retail outlets are a pressing issue today. Customers simply don't like to wait and waste their time standing in long lines at the checkout. Store owners and managers have always strived to reduce waiting times, and modern technology has always helped them with this.

Today, the issue of long queues at points of sale is acute. Buyers simply do not like to wait and waste their free time standing in long lines at the checkout. Store owners and managers have always strived to reduce waiting times, and modern technology has always helped them in this.

Reducing the queue by adding more cash registers is an option, but not a solution.

There are such ways to reduce queues:

• Mobile cash registers;
• Express cash registers;
• Self-service cash registers;
• Payment stations;

• Non-technological method - Store employees (often interns, students) help the buyer prepare the goods for scanning (weigh, remove anti-theft security tags) and pack the goods;

• The classic "queue killer" method - store employees are equipped with mobile devices with built-in barcode scanners, which they use to scan the goods of customers standing in line and transmit the information to the server or base station. When the turn comes, the cashier receives information about the customer's goods from the server, receives money and prints a receipt.

An option with wireless scanners for customer service is also possible. On the one hand, serving customers standing in a certain line. Each computerized workstation is connected to its own individual base station, which operates individual radio scanners. Store employees in the sales area scan barcodes from the items of customers standing in line using a wireless scanner running PreScan software from Datalogic. Once it's a customer's turn, the cashier scans their register's barcode with a stationary scanner, and the purchase data is loaded into the register's software. All the cashier has to do is collect the money and give the customer the receipt.

When using a cheaper option, the items of customers standing in line are scanned by a single radio scanner. The same scanners are used, but the scanner transmits information to different base stations. The option of a sales associate using a single scanner and multiple base stations at the checkout counters is only convenient if customers first stand in a common line, waiting for the first available counter. In Ukraine, this customer service arrangement is extremely rare.

Source: iterator.com.ua