Interview with Rainer Birkner, Sales Lead Retail, CCV
Which topic did you like best at this year's EHI Technology Days?
Rainer Birkner: My personal highlight at this year's EHI Technology Days was the topic of self-checkout.
What is currently happening around the topic of self-checkout in retail?
Rainer Birkner: At this year's EHI Technology Days, I noticed that self-checkout is growing continuously and rapidly. The importance of self-checkouts is increasing, and more and more payments are even being made completely without a cash module. Self-scanning is also growing. The focus is shifting to seamless checkout and the personalization of the customer journey. IT managers are expecting the next development steps for seamless checkout in particular as the shortage of staff for this technology increases, meaning that checkout automation will be further accelerated.
Which future topics are currently dominating the retail sector with regard to payment?
In terms of payment, the retail sector is currently dominated by topics such as omnichannel. The current challenge of recruiting staff, as mentioned above, cannot be ignored and is leading to the increased use of self-scanning and self-checkout solutions.
Another important topic in retail is dynamic pricing, which means that companies can adjust their prices in real time, and the associated use of electronic shelf labels (ESL). An EHI study reveals that in food retail 94% already use ESLs, with 69% planning to expand.
How can CCV contribute to a successful future in retail?
CCV contributes to a successful future in retail by providing innovative solutions such as the android-based smartphone solution PhonePOS. This allows merchants and businesses to accept contactless payments via an app on a smartphone, tablet or other professional handheld device. In addition to use at attended checkouts, the PIN Pad CCV Pad Next can also be used at unattended self-checkouts thanks to its unattended certification. With options such as reading QR or barcodes (1D/2D), beacon technology and integration into the CCV acCEPT server solution and P2PE certification, the CCV Pad Next is particularly suitable for branch-based retail.
Sustainability: What contribution can CCV make and how?
In terms of sustainability, CCV can make a contribution by reducing the typical paper receipt, which accounts for a significant proportion of the CO2 footprint of a card payment. One way to do this is to dispense with customer receipts by using a receipt server that allows them to be scanned via QR code or sent to the customer by email on request.