Fixing the Check Out Lane

So what can retailers do beyond self-service checkouts and other ideas that have been tackled already?

In the 2014 National Grocers Association-SupermarketGuru Consumer Survey Report, almost half of U.S. adults (48.9%) say fast checkout is “very important” to their selection of a primary food store.  So important that for many customers if issues are not addressed they will switch stores or forego a trip. Not ideal given than brick and mortar stores need to compete with the conveniences of online.

So what can retailers do beyond self-service checkouts and other ideas that have been tackled already? Think outside the box. Two recent developments to address checkout concerns are:

•Whole Foods Market says it will use Square technology within select stores at its sandwich counters, juice and coffee bars, pizzerias, and beer and wine bars to allow shoppers to “skip the main checkout lines, reducing wait times for all customers.”

•Amazon may, as soon as this summer, offer physical-store retailers “a checkout system that uses Kindle tablets” The Wall Street Journal reports. This could include credit-card readers and services such as website development and data analysis. 

The Lempert Report believes retailers that find ways to speed shoppers through and make paying easier will protect and potentially gain trips. Also, with the right cloud-based technologies, retailers could save a lot of redundant costs, manage enterprise data smarter, connect better with Millennials’ mobile devices, and entice more purchases with precisely targeted incentives and coupons.