OZ supermarket has developed an efficient feature to reduce the exit queues of the customers. This is an incredible example of usage of technology. The Oz supermarket adopted the new Pay Wave technology in a view of reducing the exit queues of the customers. The system enables the customers to shop hassle free, as they do not have to stand in the queue during check out. The customers only need to have a Pay Wave card for this. The customers need to wave the Pay wave card 4 cm away from the terminals and the transaction proceeds without any pin or signature. The business operation, recommendation, additional option and suggestions regarding this pay wave feature of Oz supermarket is elaborated in the following paragraphs.
The business Operation
This feature is undertaken by many retailers in order to reduce the waiting queues and handling of cash during the checkout. Pay Wave feature makes the shopping procedure easier for both the customer and the retailer. The customer just needs to wave their Pay Wave card during the entry to the market, at the terminal. The customer is allowed entry only after the successful waving of pay wave card. The shopping cart or the trolleys are fitted with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) reader, which keeps a track of the items loaded into the trolley and calculates the total cost of products (KITHINJI, 2015). For successful implementation of this feature, every item in the store is tagged with RFID chip. The customers are able to view the detailed list of the items they have put in their trolley with the help of the shopping summary stations that are placed strategically throughout the stores (Paredes et al., 2013). Enabling the Pay wave system helps the customers make quick, simple and easy transaction. The benefits of having a pay wave enabled super market is that; it saves a considerable amount of time due to a shorter transaction time and a negligible queue. Moreover, the customers do not need to worry about carrying cash while shopping. Pay wave does not require the signature or the pin. However, the transaction limit of Pay Wave is $100. Entry to the super market is granted only after the customer waves his or her card. The customers who do not have a Pay Wave card can also access the super market. They need to deposit a certain amount of cash at the front desk of the market where the authorities will issue a temporary pay wave card. If the amount of money deposited is found to be lower than the value of the purchase, an alarm will alert the customer. If the money deposited is found to be more than the purchasing amount, the money is either return to the customer in cash or are noted down to be adjusted during the next purchase.
Oz supermarket has made an amazing usage of the technology to develop a hassle free shopping experience for its customers. The process is very simple and well managed. All the items in the store are tagged with RFID readers and thus it manages and calculates the price of the commodities loaded into the trolley, which are finally queued for payment (Black, Clemmensen & Skov, 2012). In case a customer decides not to buy, a certain item, he or she can keep it back and the item will automatically be deducted from the queue. Customers need to bag their items themselves, and the amount of the products is automatically deducted from the card they used after the customer exists the store (Prince, 2012). The payment procedure is secure as it includes a secure cryptographic encryption technology. Moreover, the wave pay card uses same network as normal swipe credit and debit cards. The card is to be waved 4 cm away from the card reader to ensure that no one is paying for another person’s transaction accidentally. There is no case of duplicate transaction as every transaction is tagged with a unique authentication code. The card always remains in the customers’ hands throughout the transaction. The best part of this pay wave feature is that, the retailers have no access to the credit card information of the customer.
Tourist may not have a pay wave card and they have to deposit cash in the counters before shopping and again collect the excess cash from the counter after shopping. This is similar to the same old traditional transaction and thus the motive of enabling the pay wave feature that is to save time while shopping becomes pointless. This should be eliminated by employing other means of payments as well such as cash direct cash payment in counters or some alternative way of payments such as mobile wallet or payment apps or online banking apps. The use of Smart phone app makes the shopping experience more convenient for the customer (Smets, 2012). The tourist or the customer just has to link their pay wave, debit or credit cards with the mobile wallet app for carrying out the payment procedure. This feature will be very helpful for the tourist as they do not have to bother about the hassle of cash transaction and neither has to carry cash while shopping. Moreover, a customer can easily track the amount of money they are spending as it is automatically flashed in their mobile screens.
Enabling payment through mobile wallet has another benefit as well (Mendes, 2012). Pay wave feature does not provide a receipt of the payment to the customer. By using the mobile wallet, the customer can review whether the bill amount and the money deducted are same. This reduces the risk of any error in the payment procedure. The bank app also provides the summary of the money spent and saves the record until it is deleted manually (Fisher, 2013).
The absence of pin or signature although makes the process easier it has many security issues. Stealing of money during the process of shopping becomes easier. This may happen during the rush hours. Moreover, the card of the customer may be lost as he or she has to keep the card in her hand while shopping. This can be irritating and unmanageable at times for the customers while shopping in bulk. In order to eliminate the security issue, a limit can be set where the customer has to enter his or her pin number if the bill amount exceeds certain limit. This may eliminate the misuse of the card even if it is stolen or lost. This would also help the customer to track the amount of money they are spending.
The shop should plan to offer perishable goods as well which is not offered by the super market at present. This would be beneficial to the business operations as well. The amount of goods to be stalked can be estimated according to the sale and can be increased later if the demand for the same increases. The presence of perishable goods would make the supermarket more convenient for the customers as they would get wide range of essential goods to shop.
Additional options
The OZ super Market has made an outstanding use of technology to reduce the exit queues and help the customer particularly in rush. However, the store does not offer perishable goods, which is a huge layback for business. The store can offer perishable goods as well that would be beneficial for the customers (Amorim, Günther & Almada-Lobo, 2012).
The Pay Wave feature is enabled only of Pay wave cards. Use of card has many security issues as if it stolen or lost, it may be misused by the opportunist and criminal. The store can however adopt the pay wave feature with the help of smart phone apps. Smart phone is accessible and used by majority of the people these days. The mobile wallet feature is also not new and this would make the payment easier and safer.
Smartphone wallet can be used in the same manner as that of a pay wave card. The contactless mobile technology would enable the shopper to use their smart the same way as they are using their pay wave card (Ellis et al., 2014). For enabling the pay wave feature, the use of Pay tag comes into play. The pay tag is unique of everyone and can be collected from every counter of the super market. A customer can collect the pay tag from any counter of the supermarket. The customer has to attach the pay tag, which is basically a sticker, can be attached to the back of the mobile phone of the customer (Blass et al., 2013). The pay tag in linked to the customer’s bank, credit or debit card and has the contact details of the customer.
The feature of having an alternative of pay wave feature for example the cash payment, might help the customers who does not have pay wave feature or does not have a bank account say for children.
Shopping summary stations placed inside the shop helps the customer to keep a track of the items present in their trolley. However, few shop representatives can be appointed to help and guide the customers to shop more conveniently.
Oz super Market has enabled the feature of contactless payment to serve a larger number of customers in a shorter time-period. This benefits the customers in many ways. However, the services offered might not be up to the mark and for evaluating the same, presence of customer feedback option is very important and necessary. This would not only help the customer report any issue that might have concerned them, but also helps to increase the trust of the customer towards the supermarket. This helps to maintain a good reputation in the market (Roberts & Grover, 2012). A good reputation in turn increases the cross sell opportunities of the shop. Moreover, it is beneficial for a company to know their customers’ views regarding their company. Therefore, the presence of customer feedback is necessary. A satisfactory customer review gives the satisfaction that the business is on the right track and customers are happy and satisfied with the product and service. A bad customer review unveils the loopholes in the services provided to the customer and helps the company to improve their services and quality of the product. Furthermore, it helps in customer retention as the customer has a mental satisfaction that if any issue arises, they always have an option to complain (Timm, 2013).
The customer feedback can be coupled with the presence of product quality review to increase the customer satisfaction and improve the business operations. Product quality review helps to evaluate the performance of a particular product in the market. Product quality greatly affects the purchasing decision of the customer. Good quality product increases the sale of a particular product. Hence, maintaining the quality of the product becomes essential (Wiengarten & Pagell, 2012). Moreover, it helps to build the customer’s trust towards a certain brand and the connection between the buyer and the seller grows deeper. If oz supermarket also enables the product quality review, it can attract more customers to its shop. The product quality review will help to improve the quality of the product as well, which will eliminate the customer complaints and product returns. Satisfying a customer is utmost essential since they are the ones on whom the success or failure of the business. Oz supermarket launched the pay wave feature in order to provide a better customer services, enabling the product quality review would be beneficial to the customer and would help in achieving a better reputation of the supermarket among the customers (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
The supermarket can offer a facility of e-buying or online buying. Online shopping helps the customers to shop from their homes. The process of shopping becomes more easier and convenient to the customer in case of electronic buying (Kim, Suh & Lee, 2013). The shop should provide a facility of home delivery of the bought products. This feature would help the customer to save more time and enabling a feature like online shopping would help the Oz supermarket reach a wider audience, which in turn would help in expanding the business considerably. The facilities of online shopping should be available 24/7 to the customer. It is not possible for the supermarket to operate 24/7, but the presence of an online website of the shop helps the customer to access the store 24/7. This becomes convenient for the customer and for the business of the supermarket as well. However, customers may not trust the process of online shopping of goods, as they are not able to test or check the products personally before buying. Therefore, it becomes very essential for the supermarket to maintain a good product quality so that the customer can trust the process of online buying of goods through the help of the website of the supermarket (Jiang, Yang & Jun 2013). Moreover, having an alternative such as online ordering the product lessens the customer rush in the shop and thus helps in reducing the entry and exit queues into the shop.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the oz supermarket has undertaken a useful up gradation from the traditional process of payment by enabling the pay wave feature with an aim of reducing the exit queues in their outlets. The pay Wave feature makes the payment procedure simple and convenient to the user. The shopping becomes almost hassle free and the customers need not worry about the payment procedures. However, use of pay wave card have certain security risks as well. If the card is stolen or lost, the opportunist and criminals can misuse it. Moreover, the customers, who does not have a pay wave card has to go through an extended procedure of cash deposit in the counter, collecting a temporary pay wave card to access the store and again collect the money from the counter. This is a major problem since depositing the exact amount of money that would be required to buy the products becomes practically impossible and the whole idea of hassle free shopping becomes useless. Thus, it is a wise idea to have other payment options such as cash payment and payment through smart phone app. This would help the tourist particularly. Moreover, people would be able to keep a track of their payment and money deducted from their account if paid with the help of the smart phone app. The supermarket can also enable certain features like customer feedback, product quality review and launching an e website. This would help in improving the customer experience and business operation. Customer feedback would help to determine the view of the customer towards the product and services provided. This would in turn help the company to improve the product and services they offer to the customers. The presence of an online website would help in expanding the business considerably.
References
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Jiang, L., Yang, Z., & Jun, M. (2013). Measuring consumer perceptions of online shopping convenience. Journal of Service Management, 24(2), 191-214.
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