shopreme’s Chief Commercial Officer, Nico Müller, was featured on the OmniTalk Podcast to discuss the ins and outs of mobile self-checkout. Hosts Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga invited Nico to explain what makes Scan & Go so successful in Europe and share shopreme’s recipe for a successful Scan & Go implementation that everyone should follow.
The full interview on YouTube
Mit dem Laden des Videos akzeptieren Sie die Datenschutzerklärung von YouTube.
Mehr erfahren
Highlights
There is a lot of noise out there surrounding Scan & Go shopping. This podcast interview helps to clear it all up, discussing:
- Loss prevention tactics
- Controlled entry and exit points
- Easy customer onboarding
- Localized rollouts vs. one-store pilots
- Payment options: mobile payment vs. cash desk checkout
- Hands-free shopping for larger grocery trips
The ingredients of a successful Scan & Go implementation
Chris and Anne jumped straight at the headline that created so much buzz in the retail industry last year: Wegmans’ decision to kill Scan & Go despite the fact that their customers wanted and loved it. Wegmans named loss as their official reason for that step.
“Great you bring it up; I’m not surprised,” said Nico Müller. “It is a topic that is important for retailers. In every discussion that we have with retailers, we get asked: How do you deal with possible fraud or theft?”
Chris asked: “What are the key ingredients to doing Scan & Go the right way so you don’t have to get in the situation where you are implementing it and pulling it back á la Wegmans?”
Effective Loss Prevention
There are three factors to effectively prevent loss in Scan & Go: technological, psychological, and human. On the technological side, you want to analyze baskets and shopping behavior, and also factor in other risk factors like location or specific product categories. Combine that with in-app and in-store measures to remind customers that they may be subject to a spot check.
Our dedicated exit solution vector is ideal for that, while also funneling Scan & Go shoppers through a dedicated exit. It also adds transparency for staff who need to monitor Scan & Go shoppers, perform checks, assist with age verification, and more. shopreme’s Employee App makes all that incredibly easy.
It cannot be overemphasized how important the commitment of all internal stakeholders is to a successful Scan & Go rollout.
Make it easy and convenient for the customer
A robust loss prevention setup is of utmost importance. At the same time, it is vital not to check customers more often than necessary. In general, you want customers to have the best Scan & Go experience possible when they first use it to get them excited and use it again. Our algorithm helps retailers pick out only suspicious baskets and reward customers with a clean spot check history.
Our goal is to create value for retailers, by creating value for their customers.
Mobile payment vs. scanning a code at the cash desk
Mobile payment was also discussed on the podcast. Nico highlighted that mobile in-app payment offers customers a practically frictionless shopping experience. Having to scan a code again at a traditional cash desk adds a lot of friction back into the process. A great middle ground is the card payment option at shopreme’s vector, which only takes a few seconds.
shopreme’s most successful projects make use of mobile payment and/or a fast checkout lane with vector payment.
Rollout size matters – also in the pilot stage
“There are right ways and wrong ways to pilot certain initiatives,” Chris Walton said, “and I happen to think Scan & Go fits the tee in regards to that specific thought exercise. So, what is your advice if a retailer is thinking about rolling out Scan & Go? How should they do it?”
“If you want to keep your app store ratings high – and we are proud of the ratings our customers have – don’t do it in a single store,” Nico advised. Larger rollouts help drive adoption rates and customer satisfaction. They also deliver more data in less time to make adjustments where needed as early as possible.
shopreme customer REWE launched Scan & Go with 124 stores live on day one, topped by PENNY with 189 stores live at launch. Should you decide to pilot in only a few stores, in-store promotion and dedicated Scan & Go checkout lanes are key to achieving high adoption rates fast.
Ideal for large shopping trips
Anne Mezzenga raised the question if Scan & Go can work well with larger grocery trips. shopreme works with retailers in different segments and with different store sizes. This includes Auchan Romania, where Scan & Go is used in hypermarkets. Baskets often contain 60 or more items. Easy-access smartphone mounts for the shopping trolley make hands-free shopping straightforward and accessible. The mounts are also a great way to promote the app, which you can download instantly by scanning a QR code printed on the mount.
Listen to the full episode
Chris, Anne, and Nico cover a lot more ground in the full episode. You can listen to it on Soundcloud or any other major podcast platform.