MOBILE RECEIPT AND LABEL PRINTERS
Busting peak season queues Jay Kim, managing director BIXOLON Europe GmbH, explains how mobile printers can be used to print clear labels and receipts to convey essential information to customers ahead of checkout, while speeding payment processes in stores and restaurants.
The Christmas season is renowned for cheer, retail opportunity, in-store shopping, bustling shopping centres and queues. Restaurants too are busy as people often want to relax with some food and a beverage in between their shopping. But people detest queues as time is precious. They have places to go and people to see and often many gifts and goods to buy for family and friends through the Christmas period. But at some stage many will confront a dreadful queue – and, while there are many ways to arrange a queue and make it ‘bearable’ for customers, what is often overlooked is the role that effective mobile labelling and receipt printing can play in helping to bust queues and keep customers on side. They enable faster payments and a path to profitability for retailers and restaurants alike. Pricing transparency It can be extremely frustrating for shoppers when browsing stores if they cannot tell the price of products they would like to buy, be it on clothing labels, supermarket shelves or labels placed directly onto products. Not having a true understanding of the price of something can result in a lost purchase. More to the point, in Europe, it has become
law to provide clear pricing transparency, as compliance with the EU Omnibus Directive is vital. Therefore, labels need to be clear, robust and legible. However, when a price update occurs and a label change is required, it means staff need to print a new label and apply it to a product. Traditionally, this is time consuming as rolls of new labels often need to be printed centrally somewhere and then taken to the products that need new labels to have them applied. This process is antiquated for many as it doesn’t offer the agility required to act fast and make label updates quickly. Many traditional labels often also come with a backing that needs to be removed too, which causes waste and potentially messy shop floors. To solve this, mobile linerless printers are being used by progressive retailers to enable shop floor staff to take label printers with them to shelves or products that need pricing or label updates. Handheld printers are carried to shelves or products, and new labels are printed and applied immediately. The fact that labels are linerless is key because it means that the label is printed and can be applied directly to a shelf or product straightaway; and since there is no backing, there is no waste. This option is more eco-friendly as backings often take up more space on reels and generally require their own bins in order to be recycled. What is more, they speed up the process of introducing pricing markups and markdowns – something crucial through the peak season, such as when fashion goes on sale after Christmas. Busting queues Today mobile printers are also effective at busting queues during checkout across retail stores and on pop-up stands and restaurants. When paired with a mobile point of sale (PoS) system, payments can be accepted anywhere and receipts printed remotely. For instance, many people will queue to pay for their goods in a fashion outlet or supermarket – but, in many retailers, increasingly tablet devices
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While there are many ways to arrange a queue and make it ‘bearable’ for customers, what is often overlooked is the role that effective mobile labelling and receipt printing can play in helping to bust queues and keep customers on side.
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