Public Gaming Magazine July/August 2020

26 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2020 CORONAVIRUS REDEFINES RETAIL Safety concerns could speed digitization of the in-store shopping experience, adoption of technology W hile lawyers, stock brokers, salespeople and market- ers have all worked from home over the past months, cashiers at supermarkets, clerks at convenience stores, and shelf stockers at liquor stores showed up at their workplaces every day. These workers were deemed essential and, indeed, their presence has kept society functioning as normally as possible. Aside from their importance to providing critical supplies, these essential workers have something else in common. They all work at some of the largest sales locations for lottery. One of the more interesting developments during this period has been the importance of workers who previously might not have received much attention. With many people sheltering at home, hundreds of thousands of employees headed to supermarkets and convenience stores to keep the community supplied with important provisions. And while lottery sales were down in some states as store foot traffic dropped, the fact that these retail locations remained open meant that the sale of scratch tickets and draw games continued. Lotteries worked tirelessly to make sure their retailers had the tools they needed to stay safe and continued to provide them with their critical sales tools. A trend which will certainly have an impact on the future of lottery is the incredible rise in on- line grocery shopping and home delivery of meals. The question is: Will the current shop- ping patterns continue now that people are free to leave their houses and return to their previous shopping patterns? Last year, just 4% of grocery sales in the United States came online, according to Nielsen. Will this continue to grow throughout 2020 and beyond? And people will certainly need to fill their gas tanks (at least those without electric vehicles). Lotteries and lottery vendors will need to assess how the retail experience will look for customers when they return in large numbers. Chances are that speed-of-purchase will be important. Get in, get what you want, get out of the store. LOTTERY VENDORS TAKE THE LEAD Abacus, the ‘Industry Bridge’ between the Lottery and the retailers using its unique Abacus Transactional Gateway, has imple- mented these types of ease-of-sale solutions in Europe for many years. While the United States has been slower to adopt changes at retail, the pandemic has been a clarion call to retailers that they must adapt to protect customers and their business. “The retail landscape has been in a con- tinuing period of change in recent years,” said Terry Presta, Abacus Head of Business and former Director at the Kansas Lottery. “The trend moving towards self-service had already started. At some retailers, one third or more of the customers already use the self-scan option for paying for groceries. And the ordering of groceries online and having them delivered at home is already a signifi- cant share of the market. The pandemic has accelerated both of these trends. “Speed of purchase through contactless shop- ping and digital ordering are positive trends for customers but they pose challenges for lotteries. Dedicated lottery terminals across limited retail locations will not reach consum- ers looking for less human contact. Lotteries must adjust to meet changing player trends.” Lottery vendors have been aware of the consumer changes for many years. The impact of COVID-19 has simply sped up the timeline to implement the technology to keep up with these changes. Vendors are implementing at-retail systems that integrate into the retailer’s entire omnichannel network. These systems will allow lotteries to offer their prod- ucts direct to consumers at all retail touch points at lottery retailers. A self-service, self-check-out terminal enabled by Abacus to sell draw-based lottery games in a grocery store with a digital marketing sign.