While numerous firms are striving to make their way in these brisk markets, ZEBEX has attained great success in one N-11 member in Africa. We compete with international brands as well as Asian companies and win the battle because we offer a series of omnidirectional scanners of excellent performance yet at a competitive price. In addition, our dynamic business model and all-around service support localization. This is crucial for emerging markets because of their uniqueness in language, culture and application environment.

The Opportunity
Africa is a continent of abundant natural resources and its strong domestic demand boosts economy growth. The region is getting urbanized and the government is improving infrastructure. The increasing number of places like shops, supermarkets and factories means the need of more barcode scanners.

In this circumstance, ZEBEX is lucky to have a remarkable distributor in one of Africa's largest economies. The company has technical background; its engineers write computer software and do product maintenance. It sells a variety of computer peripherals, including barcode scanner, POS and data collector. We knocked on its door with entry-level handheld laser scanners. After the relationship and mutual trust were built, we introduced it ZEBEX omnidirectional products. Now it carries 30% single-laser devices and 70% omnidirectional ones, mainly Z-6082 in-counter scanner and Innova Z-6170 hands-free scanners.

The Benefit
As the lifestyle is getting westernized, the people there are getting used to big shopping centers and supermarket/ hypermarket; in this region, such places prefer ZEBEX Z-6082 and Innova. Their multi-laser lines and large scan window offer work efficiency; yet their size doesn't take too much counter space. Some of our competitors sell similar products that can meet such needs and the customer sold various brands of barcode scanners before. However, the international ones have great performance but unfriendly the prices; some Asian companies offer appealing pricing but the performance was awful. ZEBEX is the only one that impresses the customer with outstanding product performance plus reasonable prices. After all, we are the only Asian company with complete omnidirectional scanner product line, ranging from module, handheld, table-top to in-counter.

With the killer products, the distributor wins high market share in its domestic retailing market. In its nation-wide supermarkets, for example, 5 out of 10 use ZEBEX scanners. The customer is also satisfied with our support in customization. We print box labels and user's manual in their local language. We also collect local commodities, analyze their barcodes and then revise our firmware so the scanners can read the local barcodes of special format.

An elegant fusion of form and function
"If you can understand clothes then you can understand why I chose the scanner for my new stores. You know that women's clothes are mainly about the fashion, the beauty of the popular. Men's clothes are different; we think about the function and the form. We care that a jacket must look good, but also that it has a pocket for our mobile telephone. For me everything in this shop is the same as the clothes I wear; every detail must have both perfect form and function.

My customers come here to have an experience; these men have worked hard and wish to spend their money on nice quality clothes. We spend money on decoration, on furnishing, on training our employees to serve our wonderful customers, even when customers pay it must be quick and smooth. When my staff scan and wrap the clothes it is directly in front of the customer because I want them to feel that the clothes now belong to them.

So I must have a scanner that is beautiful, but also scans quickly and always accurately. If it doesn't work, the employee must keep scanning or type the number, it ruins the feeling. The sale is no longer smooth and the customer starts thinking "Why I am waiting? Do I really need this jacket?" This would not be good. You know paying is also part of the experience, so I must have a scanner that works very well.

Some competitors think that I spend too much time on details; it is details that make clothes: the choice of the buttons, the color of the thread. It is details that make good business. I chose the Innova because it is different from other scanners. It has beauty - it is an elegant machine, the indicator light is soft and speaker makes the sound gentle. But also it has function – being tiltable helps when we sell the big winter coats, but mostly it scans quickly and scans the barcodes reliably.

Our customers return to our stores because of the wonderful clothes, because of the whole experience, and this scanner fits so well with the functional beauty of what we create."

A multi-award winning product
The Innova Z-6170 is a singlelaser omnidirectional hands-free scanner, designed to combine the highest standards of aesthetics and engineering. Every aspect - from the soft bright indicator, to the clear inbuilt speaker, and the elegant form - conveys the quality of your retail environment. This omnidirectional laser scanner features 20 scan lines and ZEBEX' Z-SCAN+ system for unbeatable performance. The scanner's innovative design and technology has been recognized with the prestigious Taiwan Excellence 2010.

Not surprisingly, the stylish barcode scanner drew attention of one store owner in COMPUTEX TAIPEI. He was excited to see the interesting demonstration: with a suction cup at bottom, Innova could be fixed to any smooth surface; the tiltable stand allowed the machine to scan at different angels. He had never used omnidirectional scanners before but immediately decided to have these cleverly-designed devices in his discount chain stores.

This businessman has more than 4000 stores around the world, mostly in Asia, selling tens of thousands of items at discount prices. Originally they only used entry-level handheld contact CCD scanners. It is not hard to image the transaction volume, work loading and commodity complexity. In such circumstances, Innova is truly a smart decision.

First of all, Innova is great for first-time tabletop scanner users. The operation is intuitive; clerks need no training before implement. They just pick up an item and present its barcode to the scan window. Omnidirectional scanner means multiple scan lines, no need for aiming and triggering, and transaction time is shortened. The large LED indicator and large trigger button provides more convenience. Secondly, Innova has a chic form factor that fits their image perfectly: a fashionable store that sells the most up-to-date products. The cupulate stand with hinge shaft allows users to adjust the scanner to cater to their operation environments. The small footprint takes little counter space. In addition, ZEBEX advanced decoding technology guarantees lightning quick speed and unbeatable accuracy rate.

With all the above features, Innova improves work efficiency, reduce customers’ time of waiting, increase customer satisfaction and promote store image. The store owner is pleased with the result and is planning to implement Innova to his worldwide shops.