During ECRM's 2017 Merchandising Solutions EPPS held last month in Las Vegas, Time Inc. VP of Vice President Customer Development William Romollino and Innovative Fixture Solutions SVP of Sales Frank Bishop discussed what is hot and what is not in the latest designs, equipment, and merchandising methods at the front-end checkout.

William Romollino led the presentation with insights from Time Inc.'s latest research on front-end merchandising, demonstrating how dollar sales importance doesn't match the amount of linear space that fron-end categories receive, and how the front end should be managed based on consumer buying behavior. he then presented seven key insights for checkout optimization.

Frank Bishop then discussed best practices for optimizing the front-end checkout area, including:

• The importance of detailed surveys
• Focusing on product visibility
• Adding in snacks, coolers and fresh merchandising
• How to best merchandise self-checkouts
• Tech innovations at the front end