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The fashion industry changes quickly – not just with styles but with technology. For example, generative AI is a fairly new concept, but McKinsey estimates that by 2028, generative AI could account for as much as a $275 billion increase in apparel and fashion profits. With this level of innovation and willingness to invest in the latest and greatest technology, solution providers that support the fashion industry must be agile and committed to growth.
That's why we're proud to announce that GK recently earned the title of "Leader" in the March 2023 IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Point-of-Sale (POS) Software for Large Apparel and Softlines Retail 2023 Vendor Assessment. The "Leader" distinction is given to solution providers that scored highly in IDC's rigorous review process, which includes customer interviews and expert analysis of the provider's solutions.
This report verifies GK's investment in artificial intelligence and data analytics, differentiating itself from competitors with dynamic pricing solutions and real-time prediction capabilities. GK also collaborates with solution providers like My Size, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYSZ) to offer unique experiences via smart mirror as an additional integrated store touchpoint. Let's take a look at how GK has reimagined fashion retailing.
IDC's report specifically highlights GK's CLOUD4RETAIL platform. This solution is equipped with tools designed to transform and optimize the omnichannel shopping experience. These tools include MobilePOS, Store Inventory Management and GK e-receipt, just to name a few. CLOUD4RETAIL also enables outside innovation because the solution is open and configurable with other third-party applications. This is especially important as tools like generative AI grow in popularity.
Another key offering from GK's product suite is the combination of GK Spot and GK AIR. When used in tandem, these solutions track customer behavior in real time across any sales channel to create truly personalized recommendations.
Finally, GK offers GK AIR Dynamic Pricing, a tool that is important for profitability in the ever-changing fashion industry. As styles go in and out of fashion or peak seasons end for apparel like swimsuits and winter coats, dynamic pricing can be implemented to ensure every item is priced at the optimal level to drive conversions without risking margins.
Another way that GK supports fashion retailers is through its dedicated partner network. For example, GK works with MySize, a recognized provider of AI-driven measurement solutions. MySize's innovative in-store touchpoints are available via CLOUD4RETAIL and enable sellers to help customers find the right fit every time. Shoppers who interact with a MySize touchpoint, like the MySizeID Mirror, reduce trips to the fitting room which results in a more efficient and effective shopping experience.
GK also partners with ReAct Now, a major player in in-store communication. With this integration, joint customers benefit from stronger employee connectivity and quicker response times for shopper needs. For instance, if checkout lines are too long, ReAct Now's technology ensures that store employees are notified immediately to address the problem before shoppers are negatively impacted. This solution is also available via GK's CLOUD4RETAIL platform.
It's thanks to these unique innovations, engaging partnerships and our fantastic customers that GK was ranked as a "Leader" in IDC's Marketscape report. To read the full IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Point-of-Sale (POS) Software for Large Apparel and Softlines Retail 2023 Vendor Assessment, visit our industry recognition page.
If you're ready to take your fashion or apparel business to the next level, visit us at https://www.gk-software.com/us/ and contact us today.
Inflation has been top of mind for everyone in recent months. In February, the United States experienced its lowest rate of annual consumer price index (CPI) inflation since October 2021. However, food prices are still up 9.5% year-over-year. This volatile pricing landscape has made it difficult for shoppers and retailers alike.
Converging factors like inflation, increased market competition and changing customer behavior are causing retailers to struggle to strike the right pricing balance across their assortments. This is where artificial intelligence comes into play.
With AI-driven dynamic pricing solutions, you as a retailer can rely on this smart technology to analyze confounding market factors and recommend the right price for the shopper's budget and your bottom line.
Let's dive into how dynamic pricing works and the benefits of the AI-driven tool.
Dynamic pricing takes an automated approach to pricing strategy by automatically calculating how key variables impact supply and demand. Solutions like GK AIR Dynamic Pricing rely on AI and intelligent algorithms to review historical data, inventory, transactional data, company sales goals, seasonal trends and more to recommend the optimal price. Once that price has been identified, you can manually change in-store price tickets, or connect the solution to electronic shelf labels (ESLs) to automatically show customers the latest price.
What's more, GK AIR Dynamic Pricing provides simulations that showcase the impact of different market scenarios on pricing and the bottom line. This empowers retailers to set parameters on the solution and identify when human intervention is recommended.
Your customers want the best price – and you want to ensure profitability. GK AIR Dynamic Pricing optimizes this balance, reducing markdowns, preventing out-of-stock situations and minimizing category management workload. This solution also achieves process efficiencies across touchpoints, reducing errors and unnecessary costs.
Furthermore, dynamic pricing is an excellent resource for businesses that sell seasonal items like winter coats or swimsuits. GK AIR can find the right price to enhance sell-through without relying on an overabundance of promotions.
Despite these clear benefits, dynamic pricing is often misunderstood. Some retailers believe common dynamic pricing myths like, "prices will change too frequently and customers will notice." But the reality is, situations like these only occur when a retailer doesn't have control over the solution. If you want to limit price changes to twice a week, GK AIR (as well as other dynamic pricing solutions) can be configured to do so.
Just like any technology, you must thoroughly understand the power of the solution and determine the best partner and strategy for implementing the tool. In today's market, this enhanced understanding of pricing is a key factor in ongoing profitability and customer loyalty.
GK is a world-renowned leader in the point-of-sale industry and has received strong recognition of its pricing solutions.
Most recently, GK was ranked a "Major Player" in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail Price Optimization Solutions 2023 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US49458922, March 2023). This report analyzes a vendor's position in a category, like pricing, by interviewing brands that have used the vendor, reviewing survey scores and evaluating input from a board of IDC experts in each market. This report showcases GK's innovative approach to pricing and its longevity in the retail space – two characteristics that make GK a strong partner if you're looking to implement dynamic pricing.
Want to learn more about dynamic pricing and how it can increase your profits and reduce markdowns? Reach out to us today to schedule a conversation.
According to preliminary figures, GK Software SE has continued to grow even in an increasingly difficult market environment. Revenues increased by 21.21 million euros or 16.2 percent to 152.05 million euros. The adjusted EBIT reached 18.64 million euros (after an adjusted 13.85 million euros in the previous year) and thus grew by one third compared to the previous year. At 12.3 percent, the adjusted EBIT margin exceeded the adjusted prior-year figure of 10.6 percent, in line with the company's expectations. In operational terms, GK was able to significantly achieve the margin improvement forecast for 2022.
The previous year's result included the sale of AWEK microdata GmbH (EUR 3.5 million) as a special effect. For 2022, a real estate transaction in the current year led to valuation effects, as did the non-recurring preparatory costs for the corporate transaction, which reached an important milestone on March 23, 2023, with the voluntary public takeover bid by Fujitsu ND Solutions AG. These two events impacted EBIT in a total amount of 1.91 million euros. Including the special effects of the last two fiscal years, EBIT amounted to 17.31 million euros in 2021 and 16.45 million euros in the reporting year.
The company's full report is expected to be published on April 27, 2023.
GK today announced that it has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Point-of-Sale (POS) Software forLarge Apparel and Softlines Retail 2023 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US48621522, March 2023).
According to the IDC MarketScape report, "GK's ongoing commitment to innovation is a key strength and differentiator. By investing in areas including AI, AR, and data analytics, GK's solution is future ready with innovations that can help differentiate a retailer from its competitors,such as with smart mirror applications, personalization, dynamic pricing, and real-time predictions. " The report also noted, "One differentiator for GK's solution is that it is the same commerce platform for all retail segments, including grocery, hardlines, and apparel. Key CLOUD4RETAIL components include omni-channel POS commerce, retail-specific AI-based cloud service,mobile POS, self-checkout, self-scanning, mobile consumer assistant, digital receipts, and payments (United States only). "
"The apparel category is one of the most innovative in retail, and we are proud to support retailers worldwide with our omnichannel solutions," said Michael Jaszczyk, CEO, GK Americas. "From personalization that knows a consumer's clothing size to their style preferences, and augmenting consumers shopping experiemce by showing them how items would look like on them , GK and our partners, such as My Size, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYSZ) can help retailers meet their shoppers' needs, reduce returns and provide real-time insights that ultimately inspire business growth. We are thrilled to be recognized as a Leader by IDC MarketScape in the apparel category and we are planning more innovation in the year to come."
IDC MarketScape analyzes a vendor's position in a category by interviewing brands that have used the vendor, reviewing survey scores and evaluating input from a review board of IDC experts in each market. The research methodology ensures a fair and clear assessment of vendors within IT and telecommunications.
To read more on GK's positioning as a Leader, access the excerpt here.
Hyper-personalization, real-time personalization and 1:1 personalization are just a few examples of how brands and technology companies describe their ability to present customized content to their customers.
But what does personalization truly mean in these different contexts? What’s happening? And where do some companies say they’re hyper-personalizing, but really aren’t?
It’s an important topic, as retailers increasingly explore personalization tactics to reach consumers across channels via mobile devices and inside stores with smart shelves, smart carts and scanners. At the same time, consumers are asking for more personalization.
A McKinsey study of American consumers found 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver a personalized interaction with them, while 76% get frustrated when a company doesn’t.
Again, what are the expectations of that interaction? What level of personalization will satisfy your consumers?
As retailers test and explore ways to grow their personalization efforts, it’s clear that personalization is a driver for their long-term success, and a tactic they need to figure out fast — particularly grocers.
In dunnhumby’s sixth annual Retailer Preference Index, a ranking of U.S. food retailers and how consumers feel about them, the report made a point to say that larger food retailers and mass merchants are demonstrating “superior ability” in how they are growing their personalization capabilities since 2020.
Personalization was a crucial factor in this latest ranking. The report noted that all the retailers that landed in the top quartile greatly increased their abilities to personalize pricing and promotions to their shoppers — particularly those considered to be non traditional food retailers, such as club stores and Amazon.
“This serves notice to personalization-led regional supermarket chains that they cannot rest on their past or even current capabilities and must instead continue to drive improvements in digital and personalization if they want to gain share against non-traditional formats,” the report said.
To keep up with the top-tier, leading grocers, personalization is clearly a must-have for mid-tieror regional chains.
At GK, one defining principle of personalization is ensuring the content provides an enriching experience, whether that’s receiving custom promotions or assisting with payment. It’s this type of personalization that will drive value for shoppers and get grocers climbing the rankings.
GK has seen this success in its enhanced personalization solution, with grocery retailers increasing overall orders by 25% by using personalization through GK AIR. The tool tailors the shopping experience to individual consumers across all touchpoints.
Essentially, personalization is more than who a shopper is (their demographics, their income, what level of education they have) but also what makes up their shopping behaviors (purchase history, do they buy produce online or only in-store, how often do they check their loyalty status).
With GK Engage, retailers build a loyalty platform that delivers personalized promotions based on behavior, suggests customized actions for their loyalty plan, presents location-based mobile push notifications to a customer down the aisle and linked to their shopping list, and more features.
It’s an exciting time in retail, and a great time to be a consumer. Regional grocers, leading e-tailers, mass merchants and club stores all want to deliver a highly relevant and personal shopping experience to their customers. Who does it best will come out on top.
Contact us today to see how we can help you grow your personalization capabilities.
Fujitsu, one of the world's largest IT companies, today announced its decision to make a voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of GK Software SE ("GK" or the "Company") to acquire all shares outstanding of GK at a price of EUR 190.00 per GK share. The offer includes a premium of 31.0 % on the XETRA closing price on 28 February 2023 and a premium of 34.7 % on the volume-weighted average XETRA price of the last three months prior to the announcement. The offer is to be made by Fujitsu ND Solutions AG ("Bidder"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd.
As a basis for the intended takeover offer, GK and Fujitsu have entered into a Business Combination Agreement, which specifies the offer process and contains agreements on the future cooperation in case of a successful takeover. This includes, among other things, agreements regarding the support of the corporate and growth strategies as well as the preservation of the autonomy of GK (inter alia exclusion of a domination agreement for at least two years), the future structure of corporate governance (including the appointment of an independent member to the Supervisory Board) and the continuation of Schöneck as the Company’s seat. After completion of the proposed takeover, it is also planned to set up a joint Coordination Committee to ensure the best possible implementation of the pursued transaction objectives.
The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of GK, both of which have approved the conclusion of the Business Combination Agreement, welcome and support the announced offer. Subject to the careful review of the offer document and the fulfillment of their legal obligations, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of GK intend recommending to the shareholders of the Company to accept the takeover offer in their reasoned opinion to be published pursuant to section 27 of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act ("WpÜG").
Fujitsu now has four weeks to submit the offer document to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority ("BaFin"). After review and approval by BaFin, Fujitsu will publish the offer document. Upon publication of the offer document, the acceptance period for the Company's shareholders will commence.
Fujitsu has announced that the takeover offer is subject to a minimum acceptance threshold of 55 % of the Company's share capital. In addition, it is subject to the granting of regulatory approvals and other customary market conditions.
The founders of the Company, Rainer Gläß and Stephan Kronmüller, have entered into irrevocable undertakings with the Bidder. In these agreements, they undertake to tender all GK shares held by them into the public takeover offer. In total, these are 924,049 GK shares, which corresponds to a share of approximately 40.65 % of the share capital of GK Software SE.
It was also agreed between CEO Rainer Gläß and GK Software that Mr. Gläß will withdraw from the Company's Executive Board if the takeover offer is successful. It is planned that in this case Mr. Gläß will assist the Company also in the future as Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board (“Ehrenvorsitzender”) in an advisory capacity. In the event of Mr. Gläß's withdrawal, the Supervisory Board intends to appoint members of the 2nd management level as members of the Executive Board. The current CFO of the Company, Mr. André Hergert, will remain with the Company as member of the Executive Board.
Rainer Gläß, CEO of GK Software, comments: "I welcome Fujitsu's offer and am pleased that GK's growth story will continue as part of one of the largest IT companies in the world. It was very important to Stephan Kronmüller and me to find a strategic partner for the company we founded, who will continue to develop GK and who fits with GK’s strategy and its employees. I am therefore convinced that this is the right step for the development and growth of the company and am tendering all my shares into the offer. In doing so, I would also like to give all shareholders a signal of confidence in Fujitsu's offer. I am very much looking forward to a new chapter in the history of the company that we founded together in 1990.”
Dr. Philip Reimann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of GK Software SE, comments: “The Supervisory Board welcomes the offer announced by Fujitsu. In particular, we would like to expressly thank the CEO and founder of the Company, Rainer Gläß, for his decades of devoted and purposeful leadership of the company, which has made GK what it is today. In the event that the announced takeover bid is successfully completed and Mr. Gläß consequently steps down as a member of the Executive Board, we wish him every success, health and creative energy in his future work for the company and in other fields.”
The Bidder will make the offer document available on its website together with further information relating to the public takeover offer. The exact deadline for acceptance of the offer will also be published there. All relevant information and documents will also be published on the website of GK Software at https://investor.gk-software.com/en/takeover-offer.
Arma Partners LLP is acting as exclusive financial adviser to GK Software SE regarding the offer and has been mandated to provide a fairness opinion. The international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is acting as legal advisor to GK Software SE.
Fujitsu, one of the world's largest IT companies, today announced its decision to make a voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of GK Software SE ("GK" or the "Company") to acquire all shares outstanding of GK at a price of EUR 190.00 per GK share. The offer includes a premium of 31.0% on the XETRA closing price on 28 February 2023 and a premium of 34.7% on the volume-weighted average XETRA price of the last three months prior to the announcement.
As a basis for the intended takeover offer, GK and Fujitsu have entered into a Business Combination Agreement, which specifies the offer process and contains agreements on the future cooperation in case of a successful takeover. This includes, among other things, agreements regarding the support of the corporate and growth strategies as well as the preservation of the autonomy of GK (inter alia exclusion of a domination agreement for at least two years), the future structure of corporate governance (including the appointment of an independent member to the Supervisory Board), the interests of employees and the continuation of Schöneck as the Company’s seat. After completion of the proposed takeover, it is also planned to set up a joint Coordination Committee to ensure the best possible implementation of the pursued transaction objectives.
The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of GK, both of which have approved the conclusion of the Business Combination Agreement, welcome and support the announced offer. Subject to the careful review of the offer document and the fulfillment of their legal obligations, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of GK intend to recommend to the shareholders of the Company to accept the takeover offer in their reasoned opinion to be published pursuant to section 27 of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act ("WpÜG”).
The takeover offer will contain a minimum acceptance threshold of 55% of the Company's share capital and will be subject to regulatory approvals and other customary market conditions.
The founders of the Company, Rainer Gläß (also CEO) as well as Stephan Kronmüller, have entered into irrevocable undertakings with the bidder to tender all GK Shares held by them, i.e., a total of 924,049 GK Shares, into the takeover offer. This corresponds to approximately 40.65% of the share capital of GK Software SE. In addition, if the takeover offer is successful, CEO Rainer Gläß will withdraw from the Company's Executive Board. It is planned that in this case Mr. Gläß will assist the Company also in the future as Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board (“Ehrenvorsitzender”) in an advisory capacity. In the event of Mr. Gläß's withdrawal, the Supervisory Board intends to appoint members of the 2nd management level as members of the Executive Board. The current CFO of the Company, Mr. André Hergert, will remain with the Company as member of the Executive Board.
GK Software SE
Waldstraße 7
08261 Schöneck
Germany
WKN 757142
ISIN DE0007571424
Listed: Frankfurt (Prime Standard)
(end of inside information)
To kick off the esteemed NRF 2023: Retail's Big Show on Jan. 15, Walmart's U.S. President and CEO John Furner delivered a keynote speech that stressed the importance of retaining loyal shoppers during an age of incredible consumer choice.
"Loyalty in retail is the absence of something better," Furner told the crowd. "When they find it, they're gone."
Furner's right. Today, consumers have at their fingertips a nearly endless number of products to choose from, across categories, including unique and high-quality private brand items, challenger brands that speak directly to a diverse lifestyle or dietary need, national brands, and everything in between.
Consumers also now have a range of choices in how they want to get their products: online for delivery (be it 15 minutes from GoPuff or an Instacart stock up trip in two hours); online for curbside pickup; social commerce such as buying through an exclusive Instagram livestream; subscription service with auto-renewals; and, of course, traditional in-store shopping.
So, how can retailers cut through the choice to reach shoppers and keep them? We believe it's through a personal touch.
AI technology gives retailers the power to deliver 1-to-1 messaging, offers, and recommended products to individual consumers across all touchpoints. This level of personalization is essential when it comes to building a strong relationship between consumer and retailer.
GK AIR drives these personal connections. The platform offers a view into customer behavioral data, including historical transaction data and other integrated data streams to zero-in on deeply personal messaging to customers. Even more, the self-learning algorithms of the platform help relate to a customer's real-time behavior.
GK AIR enables retailers to understand the behavior of each of their shoppers and to help those consumers shop more efficiently. Through personalized engagement, retailers act as an assistant, helping shoppers make decisions during a time of incredible choice.
Among all the choices consumers have, they want help finding products that meet their needs. They want a retailer who can partner with them.
Loyalty programs today are in a position to deliver more than just rewards, but a program that assists a consumer's overall shopping journey on a personal level. For example, one customer may want a loyalty program and personalized communication that helps them find the best deals possible during tight financial times. Another customer may want help finding products that meet their personal values and beliefs.
Retailers have a captive audience. Consumers are raising their hand for help and personalized communication and dynamic loyalty programs can be the answer.
GK offers retailers the technology and capabilities to deliver personalized content that can enrich the shopping experience.
Contact us for a demo or to learn more on how personalization can level up loyalty with your consumers.
At the EuroShop trade show in Düsseldorf, which takes place from 26 February to 2 March 2023, GK will showcase groundbreaking developments to its comprehensive AI and cloud-based solutions. These solutions help retailers meet today's challenges and prepare them for the transformation of the coming years.
The Composable Commerce architecture of GK’s open CLOUD4RETAIL platform serves as a foundation that enables flexible, business-driven solutions, modular architectures and an open ecosystem of diverse applications. This is realized through the consistent implementation of the MACH approach (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native, Headless), which is used for all CLOUD4RETAIL components. Through this, highly flexible, secure and business-oriented solutions are created which contribute to the automation of retail processes through artificial intelligence.
Staff shortages, an uncertain market environment and the associated pressure for greater digitalization are currently posing acute challenges for retailers. At EuroShop, GK will present technological solutions that increase customer loyalty and efficiency in retail without the need for additional staff. Retail AI, which enables personalized and individualized interaction with customers in real time, links the online experience with the in-store experience.
At EuroShop, GK is introducing hyper-personalization in a grab-and-go store for the first time: In combination with the AI-based solution GK Engage, customers receive individualized offers based on their shopping behavior in real time while shopping– and at every touchpoint of the consumer journey. This is made possible by the specially developed Big Data Platform GK Spot. It brings together the customer's current shopping basket, historical receipt data and all product and customer master data simultaneously. Real-time interaction is only possible with GK Go because, in contrast to other grab-and-go technologies, the shopping basket is calculated on the spot and is available to the customer on the smartphone display during the entire shopping process. This way, GK improves transparency and trust in the technology while enabling offers tailored to every customer. As a result, the customer experience is improved without the need for additional staff in the store.
For years, GK has delivered the largest number of new POS installations in the retail sector worldwide (excluding hospitality and convenience/fuel). This leading position in new installations has recently been confirmed again for 2022 by UK research firm RBR. GK is also one of the world's leading suppliers of software for mobile self-scanning, RBR reported in May 2022. In addition, the analyst group IDC rated GK as a leader in its recently published POS Vendor Assessment, demonstrating GK's ability to anticipate future retail issues and provide solutions through technological innovation.
The most important innovations that GK will present at EuroShop 2023 are:
GK's new Big Data Platform, enabling hyper-personalized customer experiences in real time by aggregating all relevant historical and current transactional data and delivering it across all CLOUD4RETAIL and omnichannel touchpoints.
The cloud-based AI solution for intelligent customer interaction enables personalized product offers and discounts based on customer loyalty programs during the shopping process in the form of hyper-personalization.
The solution enables real-time product registration without scanning. This enables retailers to provide their customers with a transparent view of their shopping basket via their smartphone at any time during the shopping process. Picked or returned items are recorded using Aware Shelves from Israeli intelligent weighing technology specialist Shekel and 3D environmental detection using LiDAR sensors from Hitachi, without the need for shoppers to scan items or pay at the checkout.
If you asked three people to think about the last time they purchased something, they might each envision three completely different experiences.
The first person might remember going into a physical store, filling up a shopping cart and buying the items with cash at a self-checkout kiosk. The next person might think of when they bought two concert tickets online with a digital wallet and then used a payment service like Venmo to charge their friend for their ticket. Finally, the third person might remember when they purchased a one-of-a-kind piece of art at a virtual NFT (non-fungible token) auction using Bitcoin.
These three drastically different experiences all have one thing in common – flexibility. Each example allowed the shopper to make a purchase on their terms, using their chosen payment method on their preferred platform.
What's more, many of these payment experiences are relatively new and still gaining mainstream popularity. To keep up with the quickly evolving payment landscape and withstand changing customer preferences, retailers must understand evolving trends and adapt to them.
Let's discuss two of the major payment trends revolutionizing the retail industry in recent years.
Digital currencies are on the rise all across the world. In fact, digital currencies are being used by more than two billion people globally, with an average annual increase of 27% since 2020, according to Business of Apps. Juniper Research predicts that more than 60% of the world's population will use digital currencies by 2026.
Apple Pay and Google Pay are the top two global payment solutions, but PayPal, the owner of Venmo, is also a major player in this space. The popularity of these payment providers has grown significantly since the start of the pandemic, at which time shoppers increased their reliance on ecommerce.
Additionally, as more consumers become comfortable with the metaverse, digital payments have expanded to include cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. According to Business Insider Intelligence, there will be more than twenty-five million bitcoin owners by the end of 2022, a number that has grown 17% this year.
But why are these payment options appealing? Digital payment forms are more secure than physical payment methods because they use encryption tactics and password or facial recognition protection. Cryptocurrency payment gateways, for example, focus on security and ensure that every transaction is based in legitimate blockchain and converted to the appropriate currency.
Cryptocurrencies and other types of digital currencies can be integrated with e-commerce websites, point-of-sale platforms, accounting solutions and more. This opens a new avenue for exciting shopper experiences. For example, the NBA team, The Utah Jazz, is now selling NFTs of the team's players – similar to traditional trading cards for sports. Jazz fans can scan a QR-code on their seats and buy the NFT directly from the team with cryptocurrencies.
The innovative purchase described above is just one example of how brands and retailers can use these unique payment methods to engage customers and build strong relationships. As the popularity of these currencies grows, retailers and brands that offer these experiences will stand out amongst the competition.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, convenience became a top priority for shoppers. With an increased attention on in-store efficiency, consumers are now demanding payment options that shorten checkout lines. These solutions can include checking out on a mobile phone, paying at a self-checkout kiosk, scanning items across the store or simply walking out.
The global self-checkout market is expected to grow by at least 13.3% every year from 2022 to 2030, according to Research and Markets. CivicScience's also estimated that 46% of shoppers between the ages of 18-34 prefer using self-service checkout options over service by a cashier.
In addition, mobile POS is on the rise with an estimated 10% growth rate every year until 2032. Mobile POS options allows shoppers to checkout in line or on the go. By scanning the items on their phone or a store-specific device, these consumers can enjoy the same quality, speed, security and real-time information that they receive at a cashier's checkout counter. What's more, these solutions are secure – they don't store any credit or debit card information related to the shoppers.
Similarly, scanless options like "Just Walk Out" technology are becoming more popular. In these checkout scenarios, shoppers can be pre-authorized to avoid checkout lines altogether. Then, consumers can pay on their phones, increasing efficiency and creating a seamless customer journey.
GK is a world leader in payments and point-of-sale (POS) technology. Through our partnership with Flexa, the leading pure-digital payments network, and our innovative solutions like GK GO and Transaction+, GK can help any retailer stay ahead of the latest payment trends.
Contact us today to learn how we can help improve your payment experiences for today and tomorrow.
The Retail Innovators