Winning customers with self-checkout solutions

Description

From Orchard Road to heartland neighbourhoods, Singapore is known as a shoppers’ paradise with its diverse offering of international and local brands. According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the retail sector contributes to 1.4% of GDP and makes up about 3% of total employment in the country.

To ensure the retail sector stays competitive, one focus of the Retail Industry Transformation Map (ITM) to drive is the adoption of technology to reduce  manpower reliance to raise productivity.

The National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning (NACE) at IAL, provides consultancy services to help enterprises embark on employee-driven workplace learning projects. Japan Home is one such retailer who partnered NACE@IAL to be more efficient.

Retailing quality household merchandise at competitive pricing

Japan Home started its operations in Singapore in 1999 with three retail outlets and has since expanded to over 45 outlets island-wide, offering customers with a comprehensive mix of reasonably priced household items. 

Rolling out hardware, developing “heartware”

As part of its digital transformation journey, Japan Home decided to pilot a self-checkout system to enhance operational efficiency and customer experience. The system allows customers to scan and pay for purchases via machines, enabling the company to redirect its manpower to other areas of needs. In the process, the company adopted an employee-centric approach through the engagement of NACE@IAL to develop two training programmes :

• Train-the-Trainer programme for supervisors
• On-the-Job training programme for frontline sales and service staff

Japan Home Chief Operating Officer Mr Michael Yuen said, “At Japan Home, we are constantly looking for new ways to integrate digital solutions into different areas of our business. While the technology is crucial, it is equally important for our staff to be fully onboard and well trained. This is the reason why we partnered NACE@IAL. The recommended strategies and interventions have been highly effective in empowering our staff to embrace the new technology and new ways of working.”

IAL’s consultant team took time to observe existing work processes for retail operations, identify changes needed with the adoption of the digital solutions, and analyse skills gaps for the new workflows.

As the self-checkout system was a relatively new concept to some staff, the project team inevitably faced some teething issues especially with staff who are less fluent in English or less tech savvy. Through the co-development of training materials, including on-the-job training plan, and guidance on how to educate staff and customers on the use of the technology, IAL’s NACE consultant and Japan Home’s project team allowed them to close the gap, increasing their confidence to help customers unfamiliar with the kiosks.

Win-win for both customers and staff

On the business side, Japan Home observed that the self-checkout system has proven to be timesaving for both customers and retail staff as compared to payments made at the cashier lane. Some of the key outcomes during the pilot rollout included more than 50% increase in transaction speed and sales volume, and more than 50% reduction in workload especially for the retail staff managing the cashier counter.

On top of that, IAL’s consultant also trained the retail supervisors and equipped them with skills to onboard their staff. The new on-the-job training plan also enabled these supervisors to have a clear blueprint to train existing staff and recruits.

Moving ahead, Japan Home plans to progressively roll out the self-checkout system across its stores across the island. It will also embark on job redesign for roles impacted by the adoption of automation so that its workforce can be upskilled and reskilled for more productive work.