Ohio-based retail technology company Diebold Nixdorf has expanded its partnership with convenience-store chain East of England Co-op to deploy self-service technology designed to enhance the shopping experience

The mix of self-service hardware, customer centric software and full managed services is designed to improve in-store and staff efficiency while enhancing the customer experience.

East of England Co-operative Society is one of the larger consumer cooperatives in the UK with 122 stores. The retailer has deployed more than 180 DN Series Easy Express self-service tills, powered by DN Vynamic self-service software, in over 80 stores across East Anglia. Since the rollout was completed, over a third of transactions are being processed using self-service.

East of England Co-op required a product for its convenience and supermarket store formats. The flexible design of the DN Series Easy Express provides a platform-based approach that ensures the system is easily adaptable to changing business needs and consumer demands.

The entire hardware fleet is managed by DN’s AllConnect Services, an integrated remote service offering that leverages machine learning to predict and fix issues before they happen, enabling a metric of 99.8% availability, reducing operational costs.  

DN Vynamic Self-Service provides East of England Co-op with open, flexible and modular software that works through an open-retailing approach with flexible APIs that enables faster integration and more personalisation. This allows the retailer to be more flexible now and in the future, adding functionality without rebuilding the entire technology.

Diebold Nixdorf had previously provided standard maintenance services to East of England’s PoS systems. To help ensure a seamless experience for its customers with always-on devices, the collaboration now includes managed services for self-service, including enhanced support desk, operations and application services. This represents a shift to a proactive, remote and predictive service model for the cooperative.

“We have a strong commitment to supporting our communities and required more self-service journeys to reduce the operational pressures on our stores while improving the in-store service experienced by our members and customers,” said John Dixey, head of the cooperative’s IT development. “Diebold Nixdorf took the time to get to know our values, challenges and goals, and created a seamless solution that supported our specific needs. Our transition from basic maintenance to DN AllConnect Services helps ensure the highest availability of our technology.”

Ben Gale, regional vice president at Diebold Nixdorf, added: “We’re proud of the partnership we have built with East of England Co-op. We worked together to determine that a self-service journey would be highly beneficial to both consumers and the co-op, even in smaller stores. Our comprehensive solution will provide consumers with the shopping experience they want, improve in-store efficiency and provide the lowest total cost of ownership for our customer.”

The East of England Co-op is the largest independent retailer in East Anglia, with over 230 branches across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. It has a £110m investment property portfolio of 500 properties throughout East Anglia, including just under 250 residential units. The co-op has been serving communities for over 150 years and is owned by more than 260,000 members.

Diebold Nixdorf automates, digitises and transforms the way people bank and shop. As a partner to most of the world’s top 100 financial institutions and top 25 global retailers, its integrated products connect digital and physical channels conveniently, securely and efficiently for millions of consumers each day The company has a presence in more than 100 countries with approximately 22,000 employees worldwide.