LaneHawk InCart presents one of several solutions provided by the LaneHawk family product line. InCart does from above that which LaneHawk BOB does from below. It recognizes the items going through the check-out lane and notifies the cashier in real time when the item has not yet been paid for. InCart uses the same patented ViPR recognition engine as LaneHawk BOB. This allows it to run on the same server to capture items left on the top basket of a shopping cart, in parallel with LaneHawk BOB detecting items on the bottom of the basket. When InCart recognizes an item, it first checks to see whether the item has already been rung up in the POS system. If, by the end of the transaction, the item has not been scanned, LaneHawk notifies the cashier that the item was missed. Like LaneHawk BOB, InCart can produce several different reports to track cashier usage in order to target suspicious activities and reinforce best practices.

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Many retailers experience a slow part of the day which can be a difficult challenge to solve.  Sometimes the best answer is engaging your customers in new and creative ways.

South Korea’s largest retailer, E-mart, was seeing a a large dip in daily business from 12pm to 1pm and came up with a novel way to get customers into stores.  They created a shadow QR code that was only scannable between 12pm and 1pm when the sun was in a position to cast the correct shape shadow.  When people would see these shadow QR codes outdoors they could use their smartphone to read them.  Once scanned, they are lead to a ‘Sunny Sale’ homepage with special offers, coupons and a download for the Emart ecommerce app.  This simple yet clever campaign helped increase Emart’s sale by 25% during their once difficult lunchtime slump. The campaign was conceived and managed by Cheil Worldwide who were also responsible for the virtual grocery store in Hangangjin subway station in Seoul.

New barcodes lead to new possibilities. GS1 DataBars store more data than a standard barcode and give it potential for much greater functionality.

Look closely at recent supermarket coupons, and you may see some new markings on them near the traditional bar code: sets of neat black bars stacked in two rows. The new symbols, called GS1 DataBars, can store more data than traditional bar codes, promising new ways for stores to monitor inventory and for customers to save money.

One use of the symbols will be in sophisticated coupon offers that combine deals on multiple products, said Jackie Broberg, who leads coupon control management at General Mills in Minneapolis. Another use is already helping to streamline operations for a common speed bump in the checkout process: loose produce. During the past three years, for example, the Loblaw Companies, the big Canadian supermarket chain, has gradually switched to scannable, miniaturized DataBar labels pasted onto some fruits and vegetables. The system also prevents cashiers from mistaking organic vegetables for less expensive, conventionally grown ones.

Continue reading: The Bar Code Is Taking a Leap Forward