Carrefour Belgium to expand self-scanning in stores

Carrefour Belgium is to roll-out hand-held scanning devices to stores for customers to use to speed up and improve their shopping experience.

The food retailer is to roll-out the system to 40 stores by the end of 2010. It involves a customer using a Motorola MC17T retail mobile computer, powered by My-Scan software from self-scanning software provider Re-Vision. Based on a successful pilot scheme last year, Carrefour started to roll-out the system in March 2010 to its hypermarkets and integrated supermarkets across Belgium.

Each store will be equipped with a pool of portable barcode scanners, an average of 150, depending on the size of the store. To use a scanner, the customer must swipe their Carrefour bonus card at the store entrance, after which they can scan themselves barcodes on the products as they shop. Once they’re finished shopping, they can pay for the goods at a self-payment kiosk or a reserved counter for customers using the scanning devices.

Carrefour Belgium director business solutions IT-Stores Walter Simons said: “Introducing self-scanning has increased the supermarket’s popularity with customers because this option offers them more control over the time spent in the store.”

Customers will also have more control over what they spend in-store, as a list of all the goods in their basket, as well as the total amount of the purchase, is visible on the screen of the scanner at any time.

Once the roll-out is complete, Carrefour Belgium hopes to have 25% of their customers using the system. To promote the system, a staff member stands at the entrance of store, where the scanners are situated, and explains to the customers the benefits of self-scanning and how to use the scanner. Staff on the floor are also instructed to proactively help customers with self-scanning.