Tomorrow’s store is being shaped by new behaviours, needs and demand from shoppers. From supermarkets to convenience stores, the post office and even restaurants, self-checkout systems are becoming a permanent fixture in the shopping environment. Which is no great surprise when 63% of consumers state that they prefer self-service over service. Studies also indicate that as consumers, we perceive value from taking control of the transaction and this sense of increased control can lead to greater customer satisfaction and increased customer loyalty.
One of the most significant benefits of self-service shopping is the convenience of checkout speed. Imagine grabbing the grocery items you need for dinner, skipping the checkout line and walking out the door. While some demographics might not be drawn to such a transaction, Millennials are known to prefer it. In fact, one recent study showed that nearly half of U.S. shoppers under the age of 45 want stores to offer self-checkout.
There are also benefits to the merchant itself. As customers shop, their browsing history, traffic patterns, purchase history and literally hundreds of other factors can be gathered by the merchant. Add in a proper data scientist, and priceless trends and behaviours can be identified and made actionable.
Currently, there is a general decline in labour availability: in several parts of the world people are not applying for the role of cashier. By its very nature, self-shopping also reduces customer engagement, which in turn can lead to reduced customer loyalty. By using self-checkout, instead of sitting at the tills waiting for customers and undertaking repetitive scanning duties, staff can be redeployed to more valuable activities such as customer support and in-store assistance, thus increasing customer engagement and making the role more interesting for staff.
The most successful approach to self-shopping is when customers use store- provided, enterprise-grade mobile devices to scan their purchases as they place them in the carts. The devices are intuitive and use a smart, versatile multi-unit cradle that release a unit to a customer once a loyalty card is scanned and validated. Robust imagers with ‘Green Spot’ technology which shows a visible good-read confirmation are very helpful when scanning is needed from a safe distance. Alternatively, shoppers use their personal smartphones to scan purchases and make contactless payments. Then proceed to show the barcode with tally to an employee equipped with a mobile device.
With Datalogic our self-shopping solutions come with the experience gained in more than 15 years of projects on self-shopping, the exact consultancy needed to help you raise your brand, get more loyal customers, optimize TCO and free everyone’s time to enjoy a better life.
