When you’re ready to check out at a grocery store or any retail establishment, the decision between self-service checkout and cashier-assisted lanes isn’t always straightforward. While self-checkouts have become a familiar feature in modern retail settings, there’s a growing trend of both customers and retailers stepping back from this option. Several factors are driving this shift. Customers often find themselves frustrated by long lines and insufficient staffing at self-checkout stations. Meanwhile, retailers have observed a noticeable increase in shoplifting incidents attributed to these self-service lanes. With these growing frustrations and concerns, some larger retailers have gone as far as to remove self-checkout from certain locations.

For any consumer-facing industry, whether retail, hospitality, or healthcare, self-service technology is not the future – it is the present. Self-service typically refers to instances wherein consumers (or, in this case, patients) go through the checkout or check-in process themselves without the aid of an employee. Of course, there may be instances where employees are required to step in to rectify any issues. Still, self-service is typically an excellent way for organizations to reduce the amount of labor power allocated to the checkout/in area.

Hosted by the National Retail Federation, NRF 2024 – Retail’s Big Show is the largest annual event for the retail industry and is a must-attend gathering for retail professionals. NRF sees over 40,000 attendees annually and boasts an expo featuring over 1,000 top exhibitors, 170+ educational sessions, and networking events. Set to be hosted at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City from January 14th to 16th, NRF 2024 promises to be an exciting few days for attendees to discover the latest retail innovations, gain access to key retail decision-makers, and foster essential relationships.

An ever-changing combination of external economic and social factors has kept and continues to support retail and hospitality business owners on their toes. Whether it be rising costs, a global pandemic, or changing consumer preferences, retail and hospitality businesses have had to evolve constantly in line with these various challenges (and opportunities).

One of the most notable challenges relates to customer experience. Nowadays, customers expect to receive a frictionless, enjoyable experience as standard wherever they go. As a result, organizations across the retail and hospitality industries are investing heavily in technologies and initiatives to achieve an optimum customer and/or visitor experience. As this blog will explore, investing in durable and secure mounting solutions for point-of-sale technology and other customer-facing devices is arguably one of the most essential steps a business can take to ensure the best possible customer experience.

Technology mounting solutions play a central role in enhancing customer experience across the retail and hospitality industries. The mounting of valuable devices can be beneficial for the business itself and for customer journeys. If companies wish to reap the benefits of their chosen technology, it must be set-up correctly for their specific business (eg: its customers, products/services, business goals and so on) and considered in line with overall customer experience management.

In today’s market, retail and hospitality customers have come to expect a seamless experience as standard. In order to meet these evolving consumer expectations, businesses have continued to explore and leverage all kinds of technologies to provide a frictionless customer experience. In particular, the use of mobile technology in retail and hospitality continues to be a growing trend due to the numerous benefits it can bring to both businesses and their customers.

However, as will be discussed throughout this blog post, choosing the correct mounting and docking solutions for such mobile technology is key to gaining a real competitive advantage and truly meeting the evolving trends and challenges of the current market.

WARMINSTER, PA, June 28, 2023 – The hospitality industry has undergone a significant amount of change over the years with a wide range of technology solutions having come into play. For example, the 1990s and early 2000s saw hotels starting to incorporate technology into their rooms, meaning visitors were enabled to enjoy televisions, mini-fridges, Wi-Fi and more in the comfort of their own rooms.

WARMINSTER, PA, June 28, 2023 – The hospitality industry has undergone a significant amount of change over the years with a wide range of technology solutions having come into play. For example, the 1990s and early 2000s saw hotels starting to incorporate technology into their rooms, meaning visitors were enabled to enjoy televisions, mini-fridges, Wi-Fi and more in the comfort of their own rooms.

WARMINSTER, PA, May 25, 2023 – Self-service checkouts have fast become an integral part of today’s retail environment. In fact, self-checkouts are now twice as common as they were pre-pandemic, and experts predict that this trend toward self-service POS systems will only continue to grow.

However, it is important to note that this shift towards self-service checkout systems is not entirely driven by the benefits and convenience of the self-checkout but by broader macroeconomic and business factors too.