OVERVIEW
Tallink is an Estonian shipping company currently operating Baltic Sea cruise-ferries and ropax ships from Estonia to Finland, Estonia to Sweden, Latvia to Sweden and Finland to Sweden.
It is one of the largest passenger and cargo shipping companies in the Baltic Sea region that operates the fast ferry Star, connecting Helsinki (Finland) to Tallinn (Estonia). Shuttle-class Megastar and Star ferries make up to 6 departures per day between Helsinki and Tallinn. The extensive supermarket on board offers a large variety of food products and beverages, souvenirs and toys, for those who have forgotten any holiday essentials or would like to make gifts from the countries visited.
THE CHALLENGE
Being the trip from Helsinki to Tallinn a very short one, Tallink wanted to make the shopping experience as quick and enjoyable as possible, without deterring passengers from purchasing because of the long queues. Many passengers, indeed, preferred to wait for the end of the trip, in order to avoid the queue, thus making the company losing revenues.
Tallink first developed a solution to this problem together with Nixor -a business partner of Datalogic, represented in Estonia, specialized in IT-business products in the retail and ferry lines industries- conceiving the installation of a self-shopping solution which included the Datalogic Joya X2 in the onboard supermarket. Tallink named the new system Q-Shopping: “The goal of the project was to provide customers with a comfortable and fast shopping experience”, commented the shipping company, “The user friendliness and customer feedback of this solution in the supermarket on Megastar and Star will be the platform for the company to decide upon the further extension of the service on other vessels and shops after that.”
The solution elaborated was familiar from several supermarkets on mainland Sweden and Estonia, where customers can perform the product scanning using a special mobile device and can perform payment at special payment kiosks themselves without using the standard service counter. Whereas self-shopping solutions are quite well-known in mainland shopping branch, this was the first known project for applying the self-service purchasing method on board of a ship in the world.
Given the good return obtained from pilot on vessel Star, since February 2017, Tallink has decided to supply itself with the most advanced Datalogic products and has equipped the second fleet, LNG-powered Megastar with the latest Joya™ Touch and Shopevolution 7.
THE SOLUTION
Joya™ Touch is the latest Android-based product, the multi-purpose device that allows consumer facing applications such as Self-Shopping, Queue Busting and Gift Registry to be resident on the same device as operational applications such as Shelf Replenishment, Inventory Control, Mark Downs, Price Checks and more. The Joya Touch device comes with several innovative features such as the industry’s first wireless charging technology eliminating maintenance and cleaning of contacts on the device and cradles, fast charging mode and Datalogic SoftSpot™ technology for an easy-to-use soft trigger. Packed with technology, this device supports Beacons for hyper-localized content, promotions and location sensing. This unique handheld device can connect a wide range of wireless peripheral devices such as printers and any other devices using the serial profile. Joya Touch Android is also a phone. Using the CSipSimpe application (pre-installed) Joya Touch Android can receive and make phone calls using a WiFi connection. This great feature makes Joya Touch the perfect device for Store Associate, Store Manager, Warehouse manager.
Shopevolution 7 supports Datalogic’s Joya Touch multi-purpose device for use throughout retail (Self-Shopping, Queuebusting, Store Floor applications, Click & Collect and more) as well as Smartphones, ensuring an Omni-channel and seamless shopping experience for customers, leveraging the same GUI (graphical user interface) in different devices.
The Q-Shopping solution developed through these Datalogic products requires the usage of the boarding card, also containing the information about the existence of the loyalty card Club One. After registering the purchases, the payment can be carried out with all credit and debit cards accepted on board of Tallink`s ferries. As the Club One account is tied with the passengers booking and therefore also the boarding card, the bonus points from the purchases are transferred to the customers Club One account automatically.
Using the system is easy, customers just pick up the Datalogic Joya Touch device, and independently scan their chosen food, beverages and other products. Then, they may place the products scanned with the Datalogic Joya-mobile scanner directly into the shopping bag positioned in the basket or in the shopping cart. Thanks to this convenience, there is no need to lift the items on to the belt at the cash register lane and from the belt back to the shopping bag. Payment is also quick and convenient. In case of card payment the Self-Payment solution provides the customer the possibility to pay without usual interventions by the cashier. The multilingual and interactively guided Self-Payment station is the fastest way to finish the shopping. If customer wishes to pay with cash, it's always possible to finish the shopping in regular service counter.
During the shopping customers can see their products in their shopping basket, value and other necessary information.
Using Joya Touch customers can redeem coupons, either printed on paper or displayed on their smartphones or other mobile devices.
THE RESULT
The self-shopping solution now provides easier and quicker purchasing, especially when there is no need for additional information or sales support. It also decreases the potential queues on the standard counters, as people can perform the purchase registering and payment process themselves.
Another key benefit of Self Check Out is that it has helped to free up store associates to provide additional service elsewhere in the store, such as stocking shelves and providing in-aisle assistance.
Francesco Montanari, Chief Marketing Officer, Datalogic, explained: “With only two hours of travel time between Helsinki and Tallinn, shoppers do not want to spend their time in checkout lines. This is true throughout grocery retailing around the globe. The Joya X2 mobile device and Shopevolution middleware deliver exactly what shoppers and retailers want, a fun and fast shopping experience using an ergonomic solution that maximizes basket value.”
NIXOR is an information and security technology company represented in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. With more than 20 years of experience, Nixor is mainly focused on introducing comprehensive and innovative IT-business solutions in four market sectors: retail, hospitality, catering and ferry lines. Nixor is Datalogic plantinum partner in Baltics, partners since 1997. Nixor offers innovative and functional solutions for retail companies to ensure the best shopping experience, providing solutions for both individual as well as complete solutions, management systems, retail software, innovative self-service solutions and to high-quality security systems to ensure safe working environment. Its product range is based on modern platforms and products can be integrated with third systems.
Tallink Group, the leading provider of high-quality mini-cruise and passenger transport services in the northern Baltic Sea region, as well as the leading provider of ro-ro cargo services on selected routes. Its fleet of 16 vessels allows Tallink to offer a wide range of services and frequent departures.
