Welcome to Retail 4.0

Bizerba at the EuroCIS 2018

According to the motto “Building Bridges – from online to offline”, Bizerba will present hardware and software solutions for the modern retail business at this year’s EuroCIS (Düsseldorf, Germany, 27 Feb. - 1 March, Hall 9, Booth F22). Visitors will be able to see how innovative products and new service approaches can optimize customer processes and provide an improved shopping experience.

Digitization is of key importance for the future of the modern retail business. Online and stationary sales continue to merge, and information and products alike are permanently available thanks to Omnichannel. Accompanied by growing customer expectations, this results in specific challenges for retailers. Under the overriding motto “Building Bridges – from online to offline”, Bizerba takes the occasion of the EuroCIS to demonstrate how retail 4.0 can be made a reality.

The scales of the Bizerba K-Class II Pro family boast high performance and large memory capacity for new features and requirements.

Source: Bizerba GmbH

Retail Made Easy by Retail Framework and Cloud Solution

Trends including the internet of things, big data and predictive maintenance are becoming more and more important. However, retailers are facing new challenges due to the massive amounts of data generated by these approaches. Bizerba offers appropriate software solutions for device management and monitoring. For instance, RetailControl can be used for scale monitoring, maintenance and management. Added transparency is achieved by the automatic detection and installation of connected devices and systems. Time and cost savings are achieved by centralized control and update installation. Furthermore, transparent real-time monitoring provides users with a constant overview of all device data. Thanks to the use of open standards, the software not only addresses new IT and device infrastructures but is also easy to integrate into existing store structures and business processes.

As a universal tool, the RetailConnect interface software is an optimum complement in this context, converting data from any sources to enable communication between host systems and end devices. In addition, internal processes are accelerated by the cloud connection. For instance, if the label roll of a scale in the self-service area is almost expired, a PaperNearEnd alert will automatically be issued and a service ticket will be generated via the cloud connection.

Mobile Online and Offline: The Modular RetailApp Approach

Bizerba’s modular RetailApp approach enables retailers to quickly and flexibly respond to the needs of the digital retail business and to meet their customers’ request for information and transparency. For instance, today’s customers want to know the origin and content of the goods. RetailApp TraceListing enables a flexible management of origin data. Origin-related data of any articles can be accessed directly from the scale, making them up-to-date and traceable. RetailApp IngredientFinder provides appropriate information about many products, allergens and ingredients. For instance, products containing specific allergens can be filtered out by an exclusive search. The search criteria can be refined based on pre-defined keywords without being restricted to allergens.

Merging online and offline sales is no problem, either thanks to RetailApp EasyOrder which connects the customer’s web shop to the fresh-food counter in the store. Customer orders received digitally can be captured and processed directly at the store scale, providing retailers with a new sales channel in addition to the stationary sales, with the added benefit of more efficient processes in the fresh-food sector.

Retail 4.0 at the Fresh-Food Counter, in the Self-Service Area and at the Self-Checkout

Apart from the fresh-food sector, the self-service processes in the bread and bakery segment are important to customers. RetailApp WeightCheck checks or calculates quantities, enabling it to identify the number of biscuits on the scale at the time of measurement. RetailApp TimedAction, in turn, enables the time-controlled display of messages and the execution of campaigns at the scale. For instance, the sales staff can be efficiently reminded to regularly check the counter’s showcase.

SelfCheckout not only improves the shopping process but can also be used to achieve a better shopping experience. In cooperation with SuperSmart, an Israel-based start-up, Bizerba will present a self-checkout solution including an algorithm-based, self-learning weighing system. While they are shopping, customers use their smartphones to scan the barcodes of their products. At the checkout, the shopping basket is then checked using an algorithm based on weight, a camera and data stored in the system.

The need for flexibility is reflected by Bizerba’s individually combinable service offerings: The service packages offered under the ‘My Bizerba’ label can be compiled by customers according to their individual needs and requirements. Instead of buying hardware or software, customers can implement pay-per-use models within the My Bizerba framework, based on an individually configurable portfolio of availability, maintenance and lifecycle management.

Powerful and Customizable: The Pro Series

Bizerba will also present the scales of the new Pro series at the EuroCIS. High performance is provided by the open PC platform based on a powerful Intel quad-core processor. The large memory provides ample space for implementing new features or individual requirements. Third-party software can also be used seamlessly.