The Applications of ICT- Shopping

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The Applications of ICT- Shopping

Supermarkets and checkouts.

The advancements in the technological world have allowed supermarket chains and other national stores to quickly dominate the market and are driving out the concept of the ‘local stores’. This surge in the market has seen shares rise and profits bulge with the three main contenders in mind being Sainsburys, Safeways and Tescos who now serve the whole of the UK between them and are the household names of the shopping world. The ICT input to these businesses is vital in that it provides speedy service; controls stock levels and will even allow bank balance transfers to be carried out with minimal difficulty or technical experience.

The ‘till’, arguably a simple word has been given several names in the information technology world depending on the tasks, which the one in question can perform.

· POS- Point Of Sale terminal (ordinary checkout)

· EPOS- Electronic Point Of Sale terminal (Checkout connected to a computer data base using a laser scanner to read bar codes).

· EFTPOS- Electronic Funds Transfer Point Of Sale (the same as EPOS with the capability to make transfers for customers to pay for goods via credit or debit cards. The checkout uses the ICC (integrated chip card which is very popular on the continent) or Magnetic strip on the card to request the information of the user to see whether or not they are eligible to make an EFT. The magnetic strip can only hold a limited amount of data such that an 11 or so digit code is sufficient to recall the same data from the bank servers. The ICC however can hold much more information and is much harder to copy or have data changed by criminals or hackers.

The checkouts used in modern supermarket chains are all capable of EFT and are therefore all considered EFTPOS. In the next few years checkouts or ‘tills’ in all retail shops will use the ICC Barcodes The goods found in supermarkets are labelled with barcodes used to identify specific items on a central database. When the good is scanned a request is sent from the checkout to this main database where the request is handled and the appropriate information returned to that terminal and the correct amount reduced from the stock of that item. The bar codes are formed of lines of different widths and as each line represents a number the resulting code is the information sent to the main computer.

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