This is a quick and easy method of purchasing goods and therefore has an impact on society. We do this because we find it easy and also we find it helpful as products can be delivered to our home. This affects the community because more and more people will shop online because it is very simple therefore the supermarket will have more customers and therefore they will have bigger profits. If somebody is poorly, they can buy their shopping online.
People can compare prices of products online and you can shop at any time you want. All the main supermarkets use online shopping. For example, Tesco and Asda. These websites allow customers to browse through all the products and they also allow the customer to compare prices of products with other supermarket prices so that you can buy the cheapest one without having to go onto other websites.
This also enables people to buy things quickly. People working on the checkout do not have to check for any price labels. They just scan the barcode, which gives them the price and automatically deducts the product off the stock. EPOS has an affect on me because it makes it easier and faster to scan products therefore I can be served a lot quicker. This affects the community as well because if they are happy with the service then they will keep coming back for more products.
Also, supermarkets are putting local shops out of business because most people are going to supermarkets to buy their shopping. This is because the corner shops are not able to compete with supermarkets. Also, nobody is ordering milk from milkmen anymore because they just go and buy milk from a supermarket once a week. Get Access. Better Essays. Countdown Is an Online Method of Shopping. Read More. Good Essays. Shopping Trip Essay Words 2 Pages. Shopping Trip Essay. Satisfactory Essays. Brick and Mortar and e-tailer.
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Only few studies have been done on supermarkets in Nairobi where ICT is linked to operational efficiency. Besides, the studies have been concentrated on the constraints and assessment of rate of adoption of ICT in the country.
There is paucity of research that has been conducted to assess how supermarkets or at close, retail businesses have to benefit from adoption of ICT to improve operational efficiency. The study aims to fill this gap by conducting a research to establish the role of ICT in achieving operational efficiency among supermarkets in Nairobi. The study sought to answer the following questions: what is the extent of ICT adoption among supermarkets in Nairobi?
What is the role of ICT in achieving operational efficiency in supermarkets in Nairobi? The aim of this research is to establish the role of ICT in achieving operational efficiency in supermarkets in Nairobi. To determine the relationship of ICT and operational achieving operational efficiency among supermarkets in Nairobi. Supermarket owners would gain from learning about opportunities that ICT offers in achieving operational efficiency.
The research provided a benchmark on how various organisations in other sectors and countries have used ICT to attain operational efficiency through means such as reducing cost of handling customers directly through automation, usage of ecommerce mode of shopping.
This research would benefit the government that facilitates ICT infrastructure in the country. The government would gain information on how technology influences supermarket business and hence draft policies that would ensure its adoption rate in the country increases to a significant level.
Members of academia would gain from the findings of the research by using the compiled report for furthering their research, referencing their own work and also critiquing it. Students usually use past works to base their respective studies and this research would provide a background of their work. They would either seek to further the research or use a different context to compare the findings to suit their individual needs. This chapter describes adoption of ICT sector and presents opportunities that lie in implementation of various technologies in the supermarket retail context.
It presents a conceptual framework that were adopted in finding solutions to the identified objectives of the study. It was also be useful in comparing methodologies adopted in previous researches and how the same can adapted or borrowed to this research.
Besides, literature review is important to recognise works of the other people in the subject so that the same research is not replicated in this study. Finding out what has been done guided the researcher in justifying this study by identifying the unfilled gap by other researchers. The issues discussed include general overview of ICT and operational efficiency and the role of ICT in achieving operational efficiency.
The chapter concludes with the summary of the reviewed literature and the knowledge gap. Development of ICT is increasing at a rapid pace in effort to fill gaps in the market that are identified and which promise to meet needs of users in various fields. New software and matching equipment have been developed and adapted to daily lives of people.
Examples of developments in ICT include smartphones, tablet computers, cloud computing, fast internet speeds now in Fourth Generation 4G stage among others. These can be adopted to fit into operations of supermarkets to increase operational efficiency. Some of the areas where ICT is applied in a business context include linking business partners and players through network, fast generation of information and seamless decision making by multiple stakeholders.
Today, some organisations are dependent on ICT for deploying e-commerce platforms to increase business presence and link to customers, data mining where patterns can be used to guide firms to make timely decisions and simplification of tasks that otherwise could be unwieldy to manage by humans. Because businesses are dependent on ICT in improvement of service delivery, they have incorporated it into their strategic plans to give it deserved attention Kodama, Applications of ICT are as wide as are the needs of an organisation; they can range from simple point of sale unit to a whole organisation where Enterprise Resource Planning system is installed to manage almost every aspect of the organisation.
Some of these areas include supply chain management, human resources, customer management and accounts Duggan, Operational efficiency is essential in improving service delivery and customer satisfaction in businesses. Supermarkets need operational efficiency whereby operations managers strive to reduce the cost of doing business and aim at maximisation of profits from input resources into their operations. Operational efficiency in the context of supermarket business refers to the ratio of output to inputs and effectiveness in realisation of outputs.
Depending on the goal to be achieved, there are equipment that can reduce sluggish, repetitive and error prone procedures to enable an organisation realise its goals efficiently and effectively.
According to Neves, Trombin, and Fonseca , one aspect of achieving operational efficiency for units of products that are sold is ascertaining the unit of floor space achieves high turnover and optimal profits, hence, greater operational efficiency. To do this, retail prices have to be lower, number of consumers has to increase and customers have to access goods available for sale easily. Adoption of relevant information technology can be used to improve operational efficiency in the case of a supermarket hence increasing customer satisfaction Khosrowpour, In this case, operational managers would analyse performance of different goods by collecting data and assessing behaviour of customers with respect to the said variables.
These are typical operations that are easily found in supermarkets where the aim is to provide efficient service to customers while aiming at reaping optimal returns. It is an improvement to usual POS system. This system is placed at distribution outlets to dispense required change and manage transaction funds such that the attendants do not have to manually count change or calculate deposited cash in the collection box.
There are separate slots for change and deposits and the user may not need to access any of the stored cash. According to Takahashi, Hirai, and Kaneko , the system can improve fund management, efficiency of operations of tasks, and efficiency of management where errors could be incurred in manual counting of cash or when issuing change to customers. The system eliminates need for reconciling cash at the end of the day which can be laborious and sluggish to supermarket managers.
In this case, operational efficiency is improved in saving of time for operations and increasing effectiveness in fund management at the point of sale. These machines are especially applicable in large stores where customers queue to be served and expect to be served correctly at the least time possible. Monitoring and controlling of stock is one of the many operations that is basic to supermarket business.
These are businesses that have multiple suppliers and thousands of products for sale and make reorders at certain designated periods. Through automated supply chain management SCM system, electronic communication is made between the suppliers and the mainframe computer of a supermarket such that upon reaching a certain level, a reorder request is triggered and effected automatically. It is possible to make faster decisions in this scenario where operations can be remodelled within the system to reflect the wishes of the specific company Emmett, A supermarket can use the system to perform other functions such as tracking order of goods as soon as they enter their warehouse and preventing overstocking of goods where depending on movement of specific items.
Bar codes, which identify products, their origin, manufacturer details and other specific details such as price and quantity, are used at the point of sale where EPOS system is often installed. Bar codes are useful in improving time of serving customers and enabling the business to do other functions such as performance analysis of various goods and maintaining stock levels of particular goods.
At POS, scanned products send a message to the central computer that has data about all goods in a store which can be retrieved at will. Information such as country source, the manufacturer, specific products details are useful in making reference to the product in future and especially at the point of sale where usually quantity and price are needed.
At the same time of scanning, there is a system that runs seamlessly and helps in monitoring movements of the specific products within the store ISACA, Bar codes and automated stock performance and monitoring control system aid in making a store to be efficient and effective. Operational efficiency is achieved in several ways such as accuracy of records, saving of costs, better integration and coordination among workers within the business and other stakeholders such as suppliers, easy to control and also ability to offer better service.
At the end of the day, a business that utilises these opportunities achieves competitive advantage in the market. Loyalty cards are used to collect data about customer spending habits where preferences and other analytics are done to help a business better satisfy its customers.
Almost all major supermarket chains have loyalty cards that are used to collect customers spending data thus enabling them to serve customers depending on their shopping preferences Yeshin, Operations at customer service at the supermarket are thus made possible using loyalty cards with customer details stored in the system within the business. Instead of analysing manually what specific customers shop and at what frequency, ICT automates this process and makes the otherwise laborious exercise to be achieved easily, accurately and effectively.
A supermarket business can then ensure preferences of certain orders are made in advance to meet needs of specific clientele as analysed by product analysis systems. Customers prefer to be served as individuals rather than being lumped together as if their needs and preferences were universal.
This is in line with objectives of businesses to increase customer satisfaction. Online stores are applicable where ordered goods using internet platform are delivered at the homes of customers, saves time for customers that due to their nature of work or condition are unable to leave their physical locations. Gupta and Jaroliya aptly captured application of ICT in retail environment by linking operational efficiency to competitive advantage. According to the duo, ICT is used to better serve customers hence maintaining a competitive edge in business.
E-commerce is one of these ICT applications that enables customers to compare prices of products in various stores. This improved flexibility enables them to buy products of their preference and also make payment on the same without necessarily leaving the comfort of their homes or places of works. This could be due to personal privacy or health reasons that may prevent customers from doing shopping at supermarket premises as usual. However, this platform may be a disadvantage to some shoppers where they are not able to check goods before buying them physically and chances businesses of misusing of customer data that is collected at the time of placing an order online.
This may influence online shoppers to avoid going online for shopping for fear of especially their credit card data being abused. This saves customers need for withdrawing cash from the ATM machines and also helps in reducing time to issue change.
The exact amount of money is deducted sometimes customers withdraw limited amounts of cash from the supermarkets. However, this system is also fraught with risks such as using skimming devices to impersonate ownership of debit card privileges Byron, For security reasons, debit cards should be used sparingly since they are not as secure as credit cards.
Customers are often advised against using them for online shopping since their funds are not protected Ryan, Some of the benefits of ICT take a long time to before they are fully realised due to issues such as skills, regulations, organisational change inertia Rocha, There is significant development in ICT in the general retail sector that if applied effectively, a business can gain in operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
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