The Cashwrap Rap

Let's take a moment and rap about the cashwrap. Having a well-designed cashwrap and maintaining it is an important element of the customer's experience. Your customer is making a purchase - that's good news - but don't ruin the whole experience at the end.  The checking-out process should be enjoyable and not made difficult by a poorly maintained cashwrap.

A recent walk through my local mall revealed some very poorly maintained cashwrap areas.  One store I visited has a cashwrap that measures something like 3 feet wide by 6 feet long but had maybe one square available for their customers to use.

In another store, one whose name rhymes with "rap," I saw binders, hangers, and other assorted items stacked on the cashwrap. The only thing you noticed was this big pile of stuff on the counter.  I'm sorry to report that when I walked past the same store two hours later nothing had changed.  Yikes!

Try these suggestions to maximize this area of your store:

1. Keep clutter to a minimum. Showing the customer 15 different impulse items usually results in few or no impulse sales.  Thoughtfully select one or two key products that a customer can pick up and fiddle with while they're being rung up.

2. Don't over-sign the area. Think of each sign as separate voice; if you get too many voices going at once the customer won't hear a single thing. Combine all of your policy signs into one single sign.

3. Maximize the space directly behind the counter. Too many retailers create a pretty display area behind the counter that serves little value. Consider for a moment what is happening at the counter. A buying customer, our favorite kind, is standing at the counter looking at this space while their purchase is being rung. What do you want to happen? Some retailers try to use that space to sell more products although that doesn't work as much as we think since so many customers have shifted from buying mode to paying mode. I like to use the space to reassure the customer about their purchase. One way to do that is to use graphics of a happy customer or of customers enjoying their purchases. Whatever you want to do with the space, do it with the customer in mind.

4. Keep it neat and well maintained. The main purpose of the cashwrap is to be the place where a customer's purchase is completed.  It's not a general workplace for the staff. Insist that it remain perfect during store hours. Ban sticky notes. Get employees in the habit of putting customer returns away immediately after the transaction. The same goes for a back counter. Its primary purpose is to hold a customer's purchases while they're shopping. Don't let it become messy with gift-wrapping scraps or store paperwork. Remember, this is one of the last things your customer sees.

5. Last but not least, no leaning! While everyone may know your name, this is not the bar at Cheers. Ring the sale and then get out from behind there. We all know that every cashwrap has some strange magnetic pull on the human body, but we need to fight it with all our might. There's nothing that turns off customer more than an employee lying on the counter. Well that's not totally true. An employee with garlic breath or chomping some big honking wad of gum is worse . . .  but lying on the counter is still pretty far up there.

So let me ask, as you look at your cashwrap today - how's your cashwrap rap? Share some of your cashwrap rap with us below.