FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Retailers are demanding more out of their printers and peripherals. They want them to save money and labor, improve store operations and boost customer service by being fast, flexible and inexpensive to operate.
The recession has intensified retailers’ already intense desire to save costs wherever possible, including labor, a goal that continues to drive them to replace their impact point-of-sale printers with much speedier and quieter thermal printers.
"The POS printer industry slowed about 5% in 2001, but it slowed dramatically for impact printer," said Greg Buzek, president of IHL Consulting here. "Sales were down about 15% to 20%, if not lower, whereas thermal printer sales were up about 4% to 5%. In terms of shipment share, thermal is 65% to 70% of the shipments."
Costco Wholesale was among those retailers that invested in thermal printers last year. The Issaquah, Wash.-based wholesale club invested $12 million in the fourth quarter on POs printers that trimmed the average transaction time by 28 seconds. "Our biggest challenge has always been the speed at the front end for our customers," said Richard Galanti, chief financial officer. "It can create tremendous labor savings if you can do the same job with one less cashier."
Retailers are also taking advantage of integrated units like POs printers with built-in microreaders, said Buzek. "Although slow in adoption originally, it has picked up," he said. "The microreader turns the check by just reading the number, just like a debit card. So they reduce their paper-handling costs dramatically and speed up the transaction process."
Staples, Framingham, Mass., was using a separate microreader but recently deployed new thermal POs printers from Epson America, Long Beach, Calif., that had a microreader built in. "There is a significant reduction in footprint with an integrated unit," said Keith Gregg, Staples’ director of IS operations. "In direct comparison, it’s about the same footprint as the original printer, but we didn’t have the check reader as an additional peripheral."
Printers are also getting mobile, thanks to wireless connectivity. Sears, Roebuck & Co. is using 10,000 wireless printers form Vernon Hills, Ill.-based Zebra Technologies, in conjunction with 15,000 Palm-based handhelds from Symbol Technologies, Holtsville, N.Y. The printers, completely deployed in September, run on the 802.11 wireless backbone in Sears’ stores and act like network printers.
"The printers can have multiple users, or it can be one-to-one," said Mike LeRoy, the director of retail systems of Sears, Hoffman Estates, Ill. "Any number of associates assign themselves to a printer by scanning the bar code on the printer representing the serial number of that printer. The handheld stays associated with that printer until the associate scans another printer or exits the application."
The printers are used for printing markdown tickets, bin tickets and shelf tags, out-of-stock tickets, and pick tickets for self-service operations and merchandise awaiting customer pickup.
"For instance, in the merchandise pickup area," said LeRoy, "we may have half a dozen to a dozen handhelds receiving messages, Yet there’s only one printer near this staging area."
Prior to moving to the present system, Sears used 5-pound handhelds with integrated printers. Not only was Sears stuck with a one-to-one ratio of printers and handhelds and their associates saddled with lugging around cumbersome units, but maintenance was also more complicated.
"Repair is easier and more efficient, because if the handheld is down I only have to repair it, yet the printer still functions with another handheld, and vice versa," said LeRoy.
While Sears didn’t consider using anything but 802.11 wireless connectivity for the portable printers, it is considering Bluetooth, a radio frequency standard with a 30-foot range, with signature-capture devices, which would benefit from the more limited range. "We might use it in areas like the jewelry counter, where customers stand on one side of the counter and you’re on the other," said LeRoy. "Rather than having a long cord, which we have today, we’ll do it with radio frequency."
Wireless printers are also being used for more customer-facing applications, like queue busting and on-the-floor selling. For instance, Hallmark Cards, Kansas City, Kan., is testing the feasibility of a mobile POs solution with wearable printers.
"We are researching the possibility of replacing the current handheld device in our card shops with a device that could perform mobile POs," said Danyel Bischof, the IT portfolio manager of Hallmark Cards. "We’re in the initial phase of this analysis."
Color printing, meanwhile, is becoming more cost-effective and seeing greater interest from retailers. In addition to using two-color thermal POs printers to make coupons more attractive, some retailers are using color images of the products with which they are associated. Clark Retail Enterprises, Oak Brook, Ill., Is one such retailer. It rolled them out to more than 800 of its convenience stores during the fourth quarter.
"The benefits of color shelf tags are tremendous," said Jim Richter, vice president of merchandising, Clark Retail Enterprises. "First you have a color graphic, which helps the customer in identification. The color is a grabber for the customers. It’s an eye attractant. If you’re not seeing the product, you’re seeing the tag. It also helps with bilingual customers and others who perhaps don’t read English so well."
The shelf tags also help with in-stocks and maintaining the integrity of planograms, said Richter. "We have part-timers who might be putting up products wherever they think they go," he said, "but if you have the picture of M&Ms on the shelf tag, it stands out. So we don’t have planograms getting out of whack. Overall, it’s had a favorable response from customers, the stores love it, and the cost really wasn’t that much more."
While Clark finds it more efficient to outsource the printing of its shelf tags — to Lisle, Ill. — based Gladson Interactive, which provides the service using printers from Xerox, Stamford, Conn. — Sears has found it more cost-effective to bring some printing back in house at the store level. It just finished rolling out printers from Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif., as part of its move to redesign its full-line stores.
"All the new signing that goes in stores will be printed in-store with these printers," said LeRoy. "We outsourced much of our apparel signing and now we’ll be doing that in-house. We basically simplified the printing process, consolidating sign sizes to very few that all of the departments can share."
While the hardware is rolled out, Sears is still developing the application to take full advantage of the printers. The application will be complete by the end of the year. "When it’s finally rolled out, it will be a very efficient sign application," said LeRoy, adding that printing signs in-store will be more timely and save money. "It’s a win all the way around."
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