Quicker Checkouts, Shorter Lines

The Home Depot (Atlanta) is introducing a new wireless scanner expected to reduce the time customers have to spend in check-out lines. With the application, called Unleashed, store associates scan and record customers'purchases while they're waiting in line. Once they get to the check-out counter, the cashierelectronically retrieves the purchase record and completes the transaction.

Ron Griffin, Home Depot's chief information officer, said the new application is in about 700 stores right now and should be in all 1340 Home Depot stores by the end of the year. The new application is based on technology developed for the retailer by 360Commerce, an Austin, Texas, software company, to manage store inventories via computers mounted on small carts. Associates roll the carts in front of the products they wish to re-order, scan the bar code and adjust the recommended order quantities as appropriate. Theinformation is transmitted directly to the vendor, who fills the order. “Leveraging this pre-existing infrastructure component is a great way to increase our return on technology utilization,” Griffin said.

Not only will it reduce waiting-in-line time, said Christine Lowry, 360Commerce senior vp of marketing, “but it is also convenient for customers who purchase products from outdoor areas, such as garden centers, and a great way for stores to stay in contact with a customer through a multi-item, big-ticket purchase, such as a kitchen remodeling project.”

In addition to Home Depot, 360Commerce has developed software for such retailers as Circuit City, Sears, Apple, Burlington Coat Factory, The Great Indoors, Cole National and Meijer. Its Java-based ExtendYourStore software suite includes CrossReach, a cross-channel customer service desk; Unleashed, a wireless mobile point-of-sale application; next-generation Point-of-Sale; web and kiosk versions of Gift Registry; and Conductor, a channel manager that connects the store and all other channels with the enterprise in real-time for a 360-degree view of the customer.