Industry Trends:
Retail
Competition among retailers is growing beyond imagination. The industry is experiencing fierce battles between superstores, and more consumers are buying direct – online, home shopping networks and catalogs – at the expense of traditional brick and mortar establishments. In this tough environment, retailers need a competitive advantage, like lower costs or superior strategies to attract and retain customers. As a result, retailers are turning to scalable POS terminals, wireless transaction devices, processor–intensive kiosks, graphical displays and digital supply–chain management.
Banking
Cash isn't going away soon. It offers fast-pay and personal data security advantages over debit and credit cards, and automated teller machines (ATMs) provide easy access nearly everywhere, like at grocery and convenience stores, airports and train stations. Vendors are supplying secure ATM solutions for all types of locations: indoors, outdoors, drive-up, convenience and money deposit.
Hospitality
Theme parks, cinemas, restaurants, casinos and cruise ships are implementing technology to increase efficiency and profitability and create a more appealing environment for guests. Technology reduces customer queries by providing timely information with digital signage, saves employee trips to POS systems by paying via mobile devices and shortens transaction processing with self-order kiosks (e.g., fast food restaurants). New tools are changing the customer experience and improving back–office systems productivity.
Self–service
In general, consumers are demanding more self–service options. They enjoy the convenience, ease-of-use, privacy and speed enabled by kiosks and interactive digital signage, which are springing up in a large number of industries. Airport check-in, postal purchases and hospital patient tracking are just some of the services that no longer require customers to wait at full–service counters. Businesses are looking for self–service solutions that offer differentiation with respect to "look and feel" and provide the functionality demanded by customers.
Common to all?
?is the growing demand for innovative applications and computing power throughout the retail enterprise. Developers can satisfy their increasing list of requirements with Intel–based platforms that maximize versatility and scalability, feature a long–life embedded roadmap and provide high–value, cost-competitive options at every performance level.