PSS system is designed for self-scanning of goods done by customers using special portable terminals. Authorized customers collect terminals after entering the store. The terminal is issued to a customer after the customer’s card gets scanned. Among the available terminals, located in the docking stations, the program selects the one with the longest battery life. The docking station of the terminal is highlighted to indicate to the customer that the terminal is ready to be used. The terminal’s lock is released, allowing the customer to remove it from the docking station.
In our solution, the portable terminals memory contain the full assortment database with current selling prices of goods. The application running on the terminal sends request to the server only if the scanned PLU code has not been found in the database stored in the terminal. To allow for this communication to take place, it is necessary to cover the whole range of the store with the Wi-Fi network.
Upon approaching the checkout, the customer gives the terminal to the cashier, the cashier scans the POS code and the receipt is automatically sent to the POS, the customer can immediately pay for goods without the need to lay out the products, what is more, the cashier does not have to scan the goods and re-pack the purchased products. The system randomly selects transactions for verification - in this case it is necessary for the cashier to scan all of the goods. It is possible to configure that random selection. The positive verification reduces the probability of selecting the next transaction, and the negative verification increases this probability. What is more, in specific situations, e.g. when two consecutive transactions get verified negatively, it is also possible that a given customer’s right to use the PSS system may get revoked.
The benefits of implementing the PSS system:
- facilitation of purchases made by customer card holders – customers do not need to lay out the products at the checkout and then pack them back to the shopping cart; customers can see the price of goods and value of purchases at any time; customers do not stand in line at the POS,
- speeding up the customer service,
- possibility to implement additional functions such as support for shopping lists, pop-up notifications of promotions like "bonus buy" (similar as in the case of smartphone applications for customers).
