About
Feneberg Lebensmittel GmbH is a family- owned, regional supermarket chain in southern Germany. Feneberg was founded in 1947 and now employs over 4,000 staff. It focuses on the sale of high quality groceries, especially promoting organic and local products through its ‘VonHier’ range.
Feneberg is dedicated to always providing the best possible customer service and in-store experience for its shoppers. With
this in mind, it decided to update its existing point of sale (POS) systems to improve the checkout experience; it replaced tills, printers, scales, imagers and cash registers at all of its supermarkets.
Challenge
The point of sale (POS) provides the longest and final point of interaction with the client in the store, so a good experience at this stage is essential to ensure customer loyalty and return visits.
Previously, checkout staff had to search for a barcode on an item and align it properly with the scanner for the item to be processed. They also had to manually input codes from damaged, poorly printed or overwrapped barcodes and from coupons and customer loyalty cards. This all wasted valuable time at checkout and could contribute to longer queues, especially at peak periods.
Solution
Having previously deployed Zebra Technologies’ MC17 Retail Mobile Computers for self-scanning, wireless networks and MC55 Terminals in its stores, Feneberg already knew the Zebra Technologies hardware. Working together with EDV Service GbR, Feneberg’s IT service provider, Zebra Technologies’ partner IT-Informatik, deployed and installed the imagers at the POS alongside its retail solutions suite factor:plus.
The MP6000 Multi-Plane 1D/2D Bioptic Imagers with integrated Mettler Toledo scales allow simultaneous scanning and weighing. The MP6000s offer a six-sided coverage zone with 100 per cent image processing. As articles do not have to be perfectly aligned, customers save time at the check-out. Thanks to its modular design and the integrated scanner on the customer side, the MP6000 also offers further functionality, such as allowing Feneberg’s staff to read 1D and 2D barcodes, even those on customers’ smartphones.
The DS4208 Handheld 2D Imagers and the DS9208 Omnidirectional Hands-free Presentation Imagers are used to check
out at Feneberg’s supermarket bakeries, butcher’s and flower shops. The staff in these departments find the imagers easy to use and have praised their rugged, durable design and their high-peformance scanning of 2D barcodes, which are increasingly used in supermarkets to encode larger amounts of data. The DS9208 imagers have the most compact footprint in their class, so Feneberg has deployed these in areas where space is limited.
Results
The imagers have enabled excellent scanning performance and fast read-rates at Fenebergs POS. Staff can accurately and quickly scan any barcode on any kind of surface, even if it is damaged or displayed on the screen of a mobile phone or on a plastic loyalty card. This improves staff productivity and ensures shoppers enjoy efficient, quick service, engendering a greater customer loyalty.
The imagers are easy to use and robust, ideally suited to the retail environment. Moreover, they can be flexibly adapted to meet future needs and integrate with any new software and hardware. The warranties ensure any faulty imagers are repaired or replaced, minimising equipment downtime. All this contributes to protecting Feneberg’s investment long term.
Article Credit: https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra/success-stories/en-us/pdfs/feneberg-en-us.pdf
