York Nisa store putting shopper safety first with self-checkouts

A Nisa retailer in York is prioritising the safety of its shoppers and staff this winter by expanding its self-serve till area.

Last year, store manager Stuart Reeve and the team at Nisa Local Market Square, University of York had four self-service checkouts (SCOs) installed but after seeing the benefits that came along with them recently invested in another five.

With shoppers increasingly cautious of handling cash due to the pandemic there has been a huge increase in contactless card transactions over the last 12 months, and Nisa’s state of the art self-service checkouts provide a solution that allows customers to shop safely and in confidence.

“As our store is based at the heart of a university campus, we have a high traffic of customers using the store in between lectures. This means we would have a 20-minute period every hour where the shop would have eight staff on the tills,” said Reeve.

The upgrade to nine SCOs has allowed the team at the University of York store to place a full transaction into the hands of the customer, minimising need for contact between staff and shopper and speeding up the overall shopping process.

“We have a lot of customers who are more likely to use a self-service checkout over a manually operated till, especially our student clientele. This is because they are faster to use, and the customer can keep away from other members of the public, making them feel safer when they are out shopping.” 

Impressed with the efficient installation process the first time around, the decision was made to add five more SCOs and move the location of the existing four that were already in store. The changes were completed – along with the addition of two more tills to the main till area - by Nisa’s specialist team within two weeks whilst the students were off-campus, minimising impact to business.

Reeve said: “From start to finish our experience went very well. Any teething problems we had after reopening, the EPOS team at Nisa sent out an engineer as soon as possible.”

Jonathan Peaker, Nisa’s EPOS sales manager said: “We have seen an influx of stores investing in self-serve tills this year with many wanting to minimise face-to-face contact not only for the benefit of those visiting the shop, but for the wellbeing of the team working there too.

“The easy to use system puts the transaction in the shoppers’ hands, aiding safety and freeing up crucial time for workers which is particularly beneficial at this busy time of the year.”