Big box retail stores are hugely popular and 72% of Canadian consumers find that they add convenience by creating one-stop shopping experiences. With convenience being a sought-after perk by consumers, it makes sense to continue to find the most efficient ways to serve your consumers and run the daily operations of your business. The benefits of automating cash operations are well worth the initial investment. Simplifying and streamlining your cash management processes, particularly in a large retail setting, gives your business the chance to focus on driving sales and increasing profits.
Cash automation is the process of adding technology into your business to replace tasks that would normally be completed manually. Such technology can take over accepting cash, returning change to customers, counting and sorting bills, detecting counterfeit currency, and balancing tills.
Investing in cash automation is one of the best decisions you can make in big box retail for your profitability and for your customers. Here’s why:
Increased Security
The security of your cash handling process is crucial. If you do not have effective plans in place to protect your business from theft and counterfeit fraud, you can leave your business vulnerable to huge losses. Cash automation introduces complete security into your cash transactions. Many cash counters, sorters, and recyclers have built-in counterfeit detection that can accurately identify and reject counterfeit currency. Using this technology eliminates the risk of inadvertently accepting counterfeit currency. It also protects your business from theft, particularly when using cash recyclers that act as a vault for your cash and can trigger alarms if they are tampered with. Automation increases the safety and security of big box retail stores for staff and customers alike.
Errors Are Eliminated
Cash handling errors can easily happen when manually processing cash transactions. In busy big box stores where your staff may be trying to serve customers as quickly as possible, it can be easy for proper procedures to be abandoned, opening the door for errors. Cash handling mistakes don’t just affect your business when they happen, mistakes can prevent customers from returning to your store. Cash automation, such as a cash recycler, ensures that each cash transaction is handled accurately and efficiently.
Focus on Sales and Service
Operating the point-of-sale terminal takes your staff away from opportunities to grow your business and increase sales. Once customers reach the register, chances are they have already made up their minds about what they are going to buy. Aside from some smaller up-selling items, it isn’t easy to increase that sale. Implementing technology that allows your customers to complete their own payments gives your staff the chance to provide better customer service on the sales floor.Increasing the presence of your staff on the sales floor not only increases sales, but it also allows your staff to spend more time with customers to make sure all of their needs are met. This has a positive bearing on customers returning to your store, further increasing sales.
Increased Efficiency
Manual cash handling, particularly for a large transaction, involves many steps. Your staff has to count how much cash the customer gives them, calculate the proper change, and count out the change to give to the customer. Adding automation technology that can accept, calculate, and dispense cash and coins can drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for each transaction. By reducing the time it takes to process each transaction, the long lines that form in a busy big box store are reduced, giving your customers an efficient, accurate, and secure shopping experience. Implementing cash automation into big box retail stores improves the daily operations for customers, staff, and the bottom line.
Author: Robin Steinberg October 03, 2016 09:00 AM