Self-checkouts have become commonplace across the grocery sector – but as other sectors jump on the bandwagon, could it soon become the status quo?

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Walking down London’s Oxford Street, a new trend has begun to form – shoppers are no longer subject to lengthy checkout queues, but instead have to contend with a self-checkout kiosk.

Self-checkouts are now the norm as supermarkets and retailers from Tesco to Sainsbury’s to Amazon have even begun experimenting with more advanced just-walk-out technology.

Other sectors, such as fashion, general merchandise and homewares, are a few steps behind, however – and have just begun trialling such checkouts in stores.

Exacerbated by the pandemic, which has led consumers to be less keen on the human contact element of manned tills, self-checkouts have popped up in Zara, Matalan and Wilko to name a few. Retailers such as Nike and Decathlon meanwhile have taken things one step further and implemented technology such as RFID tags and mobile apps to create a more seamless self-checkout experience.

Retail Week explores what this could mean for the future of the store – and the role of the store associate.

Consumer demand

“We are seeing an increased adoption and experimentation of self-checkout across retail sectors, certainly more than we’ve ever seen before,” says Accenture managing director for retail Alice Cowley.

“I do think there’s been significant encouragement from the growing customer preference to use self-checkout over traditional tills, to minimise human contact particularly with what’s going on with the pandemic.”

According to research from Accenture, 40% of shoppers do prefer to use self-checkouts across all retail sectors and are gradually getting used to the technology outside of grocery.

However, opinion is divided among non-grocery retailers about how best to meet this demand. 

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While some retailers such as Matalan and Wilko have opted to effectively reverse the till in store so shoppers scan and process payment for their purchases themselves, others such as Nike have introduced in-store payment via their mobile app, allowing shoppers to process purchases via their own smartphones.

Nike said this technology was introduced to tackle the ”friction point” of long checkout lines in store, as well as offer consumers the choice of how they wanted to pay for their purchases. But while Nike’s in-store app payment may look like a more slick and sophisticated checkout process, Global Data UK retail research director Patrick O’Brien has reservations about the customer experience.

“When you have the app-based, scan as you go system it’s actually quite laborious,” he says. “If you’ve got your phone in one hand and the product in the other, it’s quite awkward.

“If you have to have downloaded an app or something like that, or scan something on your phone while you’re paying, you’re presenting more hoops.”

He points to the fact that many customers walked away from the latest Tesco Holborn self-checkout offering due to the friction of having to download the app to shop as evidence that a more simple self-checkout process can often be preferred by shoppers, even if it is less innovative.

Many non-grocery retailers are at different stages of the development journey of self-checkout for shoppers - with some investing in tech to facilitate a more seamless experience, others offer a less slick operation which sees shopper having to contend with barcode scanners and payment processes previously reserved for staff.

“As these technologies mature there’s been a reduction in the cost to invest and implement, and therefore that drives a question in retailer’s minds about ’should we actually experiment with this and can we see the benefits?’” says Cowley.

Furniture retailer Ikea was one of the first to introduce self-checkouts for its customers back in 2007, ”based on the changing retail environment and wanting to offer our customers a new, efficient, and alternative way to pay”.

An Ikea spokesperson told Retail Week that the decision to introduce this option was, like Nike said, all about consumer choice.

”It’s about offering choice to our customers, providing them the opportunity to shop and pay how they like,” Ikea explains. ”Some customers like to take control of their shopping experience and self-service tills allow customers to browse, select the items they want and checkout without the need to connect with a member of staff.”

Zara

Zara’s self-checkouts have been added to some of the more popular stores across its estate in order to cut queues at its manned tills. In theory, this is a great idea, as Zara usually gives little floorspace to its tills, with only a handful of cashiers at the desk at any one time - leading to lengthy and often frustrating queues. However, the process at the self checkout is quite clunky and what is supposed to be a frictionless transaction is anything but.

A plus for the self-checkout is that it recognises the item for purchase without the need to scan a label using RFID technology. The sleek tills are also in keeping with Zara’s store design in white and black, and feature a helpful hook for unwanted hangers, and one for Zara’s free paper bags.

The downsides to the experience, however, outweigh the benefits. Firstly, once the till has recognised the item for purchase, customers are prompted to scan their Zara app to receive their receipt, adding friction by adding a phone into the process, or creating confusion for those who do not have it downloaded. While the app is not a prerequisite for purchase, its prominence during the checkout process makes it seem so.

Additionally, due to Zara’s higher prices, security tags are attached to every garment and need to be removed by the customer after completing the purchase via card or contactless. While this may seem simple to cashiers, for an inexperienced customers it can be a clunky process getting the tag in the right position to be removed, especially without causing damage to the garment.

Other customers have also reported that they have forgotten to remove the tags as the payment had already gone through, leading to issues when exiting the store where a customer has to go back to a manned till to get them removed. While the Zara self-checkout has potential, the process needs some refining, in particular when it comes to security tags, as the current experience makes me more inclined to wait in the queue.

Business benefit

zara

For retailers, while initial installation costs could be high, installation of self-checkouts would long term act primarily as a cost-saving measure, as store staff are no longer employed to simply stand behind a desk.

“It’s interesting to think about why they’re implementing these self-checkouts,” says O’Brien. 

“If you think about the staffing of the store, having to have them stand behind the till and wait for the customer to come and bring their stuff to be checked out, that’s not the best way for staff to be utilised.

“You can see their thinking that they can free staff up to go out onto the floor, make sure everything is presented well and is stocked up, and that they’re on hand to engage with the consumers before they’ve even made the purchase. 

“The idea that staff should be there when you’ve already decided to make the purchase doesn’t really add to anything.”

O’Brien, however, is sceptical that the reality of the situation matches up to what retailers actually do with their former cashiers when implementing self-checkouts.

“If the case was already there for adding more staff to the shop floor, then they would’ve been put in place already.

“Retailers are trying to increase the profitability of the store, so why would they reinvest those savings in staff elsewhere in the business? I just don’t believe it.”

Completely rethinking the store

Cowley is more convinced. “I think the real advantage is freeing up the store colleagues’ time – moving them from customer service jobs to getting them involved in other more creative problem solving around the store,” she says.

“What we’re seeing is that retailers are just completely rethinking the operating model in store. There are many questions about what an omnichannel store looks like in the future. Do you have a world where you have omnichannel picking and packing going on? Could staff be redeployed there? Could they be deployed in other areas like click and collect? 

“The question is how the future operating model needs to evolve, both to take advantage of  a more efficient operation in some of the areas that will naturally become automated, and redirect it into the higher value ways in which customers are shopping now.”

Ikea Order and Collection Westfield touch screens

Retail analyst Tiffany Lung agrees that there is a role for staff elsewhere in the store.

“Rather than elimination, the staff should be repurposed and upskilled to assist the retailer with online orders in-store, especially in the rise of click-and-collect and ship-from-store initiatives. 

“Staff can also be given a hybrid role to take on more control with merchandising on the shop floor, based on their knowledge and daily interaction with consumers – much like with Decathlon’s sales associates responsible for stock management and building up a community with the clientele.”

Ikea’s strategy when it comes to store colleagues exemplifies this.

”Our checkout co-workers have varied responsibilities with many being multi-skilled, allowing them to always help with various customer needs, as well as moving to different departments when needed, such as customer services, click & collect, or even sales,” the retailer explains.

Nike meanwhile places a focus on its store staff as athletes – freeing them up from being behind a till allows them to offer expert advice and help with in-store activities rather, as well as being on hand to guide them through the self-checkout if needed.

Wilko

Wilko Fulham

True to its value nature, Wilko has just begun experimenting with self-checkouts by simply turning around the screen at the tills to face the customer. Shoppers then scan their items using the barcode scanner on the cash desks to make a purchase.

The unattractive kiosks are not built for purpose - leaving customers with little space to place and bag their items before and after scanning or sometimes watching their items go down the conveyor belt behind the screen. While this is more understandable if Wilko wishes to test and learn before investing in self-checkouts, its worst offence is the touch-screen interface.

The experience is not intuitive for customers who are used to self-checkout screens in supermarkets, as again, it looks like the same screen that would ordinarily face the cashier. Cashiers would receive training on how to use these, where customers are largely left to their own devices, and I witnessed some customers struggling to grapple with the process.

Wilko shoppers also have very little choice in which checkout they wish to use - queuing to pay in the same lengthy queue and herded to whichever becomes free first. Wilko’s self-checkout trial therefore offers neither a speedier or more seamless experience, and the lack of staff on hand to aid shoppers indicates that this has really only been a cost-saving measure to eliminate staff from the cash desks.

 

A good experience

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A good self-checkout experience relies on seamlessness, which in turn lies in having the right technology in place for each business.

“Stick with something simple and customers are familiar with outside of a store – simply as a touchscreen pad and a barcode scanner,” recommends Lung.

“Image recognition and RFID readers are great in providing an illusion of a magical and seamless experience, but not necessarily a straightforward one for consumers to intuitively grasp without assistance.”

Cowley believes that once customers have become used to self-checkout kiosks, retailers will “leapfrog” to the next generation of technology, experimenting with just-walk-out tech like their grocery counterparts.

According to Accenture, 22% of softline retailers, such as clothing and home, intend to invest in RFID for self-checkout over the next year.

“RFID is a key enabler of the just-walk-out technology and the beauty of it is it really maximises the customer benefits,” explains Cowley.

“It’s about as seamless as it gets - minimising time and effort for the customer, and maximising the business benefit because it frees up customer service time and store space.” 

Cowley adds that she expects there could be some consolidation of apps used to enter such just-walk-out stores. A single app for all the grocers, or for all the fashion retailers, using the same technology could therefore prove useful.

Self-checkouts will undoubtedly grow in popularity in fashion and homewares in the coming months and years, the same way they did in the grocery sector. While the business case is there that former checkout staff will be redeployed elsewhere in the store, the reality is yet to match up to this – leaving questions over whether it ever will.

With the current teething problems and lack of investment in the right seamless technology, however, there will still be plenty of customers who choose a long queue to a cashier, rather than a clunky self-checkout experience. 

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