Nuance-Watson has announced today that it has just completed the roll-out of its brand new Point-Of-Sale system across all outlets at Hong Kong International Airport spanning over 110 stations.

The company says it is by far the most sophisticated POS used in the retail sector at the airport and the multi-million investment in software and hardware aims to improve business operation and enhance customer service.
Entering the third year of its second concession, this new POS system is also part of the company?s lead to consolidate the foundation for future business growth and reinforce its commitment to being a leader in using advanced technology in airport travel retail.
In a statement today, the company said: ‘Operating a wide range of stores with millions of transactions in a year, Nuance-Watson faces one common unique challenge. It needs to have fast, reliable checkouts for the long lines of enthusiastic and hurried customers that always seem to appear just before and after flights.
‘This new POS system is powered by a central processing unit ten times faster than before. Combining with the easy touch-screen interface, a transaction can be completed in less than 5 seconds. Apart from faster checkout, it also significantly facilitates handling of transactions by over 500 frontline staff.’
Nuance says the new interface design also allows its staff much more mobility to go back to previous steps and re-select at any time before confirming a transaction. Another major benefit is a new payment process customized for foreign currencies, a unique solution especially designed for Nuance-Watson to assist with its need to be able to accept more than 30 different foreign currencies.
Under this new system, all pricing and promotion mechanics are pre-programmed through the retailer's central office, making it possible for stores to run numerous different promotions at the same time. By scanning the products, the system automatically calculates the offer and displays it clearly on the receipt, saving the company's sales staff the difficulty of memorizing a list of promotional SKU numbers or missing out on entries.
The company said: ‘Going forward, Nuance-Watson plans to extend this function to offer customers even more choices of promotions. A 'mix and match' application is in place to give the future capability of making two or more different promotional offers at the same time on one product item.’ To keep staff aware of the different types of promotions, Nuance-Watson also has the technology to set up a running banner on the check out screen to feature all the promotions happening in store. It says this will also ensure that customers do not miss out on any offers.
Apart from improving operations and enhancing customer service, the retailer says it wants to establish a more proactive approach to monitor performance and maximize sales, extending it beyond the management team down to store level. The intention here is to build a spirit amongst the staff team of constantly pushing sales.
Prior to rolling out the new system, the retailer's Information and Technology department had to collect and compile sales information and send this out to the management team three times a day. With this new system, all stores? transactions are updated and synchronized with the server every 15 minutes.
The Management team at head office, as well as the manager of each store, can directly click into the system to enquire for sales information instantly, so allowing them to proactively monitor performance.
‘For instance, shop managers can constantly check his or her store?s sales against target, which allows them to take immediate action to push sales activities on floor. This is intended to encourage healthy competition within store, or among different stores, to achieve better sales.’
Nuance-Watson says that for the management team, real time sales data will also give them instant feedback on the customer response to various promotions.
The company said: ‘Other than sales information, staff can also obtain the most current and accurate stock information across all stores. When an item is sold out in one store, they can initiate stock transfer from another store which allows them to seize every opportunity and respond rapidly to customer demand, especially during peak momentums.’
Through this ‘powerful data management system’, Nuance-Watson says it also plans to offer a customer loyalty programme in the near future. Passengers will be able to open a membership account in any of its stores by presenting a boarding pass. The pass will then be slid through a card reader with the passenger?s name automatically captured.
The retailer says that the system can also search and recall a membership easily to allow customers to enjoy privileges or rewards conveniently, without having to carry their membership card when they travel.
This capability also opens up a host of other opportunities for Nuance-Watson. It says it should be able to join promotion activities with outside parties to give their customers more opportunities to earn other rewards and broaden their customer base as well.