Yes, automated checkouts will become more common. They save time, help save space, and reduce labor costs. The technology works, although adapting it to a full scale grocery store is more costly and adoption there may take longer.

However I don’t believe that they will completely replace registers over the medium term. A lot of shoppers like the interaction at registers and it is an integral part of the service offering. This human side can’t be forgotten in the push to automation.

If the technology had been proven from a shopper experience and store profitability perspective, we would have a whole lot more than 26 stores. We don’t know yet if this is a thing or will be a thing – nobody’s shown scalability or profitability numbers yet. Sure, the pandemic is making it more interesting to try. A short-term phenomenon.

The pursuit of more seamless check out experiences was always happening, but there’s no doubt that the pandemic has accelerated this. While the Amazon Go platform is likely the most advanced in terms of buy-and-go, the technology overhead and cost of deploying and maintaining this is likely well beyond the means of many retailers. That said, I have no doubt that this type of technology will continue to evolve and become more reliable and affordable.

A pleasant shopping experience can be easily ruined by a bad checkout experience at the self check out. Amazon Go is good. CVS is mostly good, but Morton Williams, a supermarket chain in NYC which is a great store in every way (great selection, always fully stocked, etc.) is ruined by their horrible self checkout POS system. A shopping trip needs to check all the boxes and a bad checkout leaves you wanting to check out of going back there.

I’m either getting old, jaundiced or am just too pragmatic.

I don’t see this technology scaling well, either due to loss prevention or maintenance costs, for many years to come. I’ve gone past being irritated by the hype around it. Of course customers like it. They don’t have to do anything. Frankly, there are other ways to improve the checkout experience that don’t hold the same costs — but this is a bright shiny object that’s much more printworthy than just “We’ll put your groceries on the belt at the checkout stand for you along with doing the bagging on the other end.”

And yes, cost is a problem with replacing most anything in stores. I don’t think this technology will pay for itself. I don’t see it.

The pandemic has certainly increased consumers’ interest in contactless transactions which is accelerating retailers’ interest in contactless payments, self-checkout and “Just Walk Out” technology. The cost of “Just Walk Out” technology is still too expensive for most use cases, but the cost will continue to decline as adoption grows. I think many consumers would welcome a shop and go experience as convenience is a priority for most people. The increased attention given to this trend will hopefully spur increased innovation of technologies that are more cost effective than Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” method. Maybe RFID could be the answer…

The pandemic accelerated many trends including frictionless checkout. Today there are many varieties of this technology with Amazon Go’s type of system being the most advanced. It requires no involvement on the part of the customer, however it is also the most expensive.

It has been deployed in small format locations but the larger the store the greater the cost. I have not seen any estimates of the cost for a supermarket but can expect it to be cost prohibitive at least for some time. The broader customer base is likely to mean that there will remain a need for the traditional cashier-based checkout for some customers and for age restricted items.

Just Walk Out will become mainstream in grocery and big box stores. Self-service checkouts already outnumber the manned checkouts in these stores. Strip mall retailers, apparel and specialty stores, not so much. And I expect them to stay like that, considering that self-checkouts have not made their way there yet.

I agree that some type of shopper-assisted checkout will be one of the largest customer experience changes in the next five years. The Amazon Go concept is expensive and appears to deliver a good customer experience in what is probably not a cost-effective solution in a 5,000 square foot location. It meets multiple significant challenges when looking at retailers who have locations exceeding 50,000 square feet. However the concept of having the customer scan with their phone already has significant customer acceptance. This type of solution combined with RFID and other technologies including using the phone to pay or using a self-checkout device as a payment station will all continue to grow at a significant pace. The solution will vary somewhat based on the retail segment. However, the thing that will remain common across all solutions will be the use of the consumer phone as an enabler. In the high touch retail segments, we are already seeing most new POS devices/software being focused on a mobile experience.

The pandemic has definitely accelerated what was going to be a de facto result anyway. The period of time in which the conversion will be accomplished may be another 10 years. There is an entire, albeit dwindling, demographic of Baby Boomers and older which will not have embraced that technology before they stop shopping for ever. Everyone else coming up behind that generation is well on its way to acceptance, but the total conversion will take a while.

Given the pressure in terms of retail wages and the need to focus staff on customer service this is likely to happen very soon. Investment in enabling technology has been slow. It will be interesting to see if Amazon offers the Go concept as a service to other retailers. Using a similar approach makes sense but the investment is huge. Amazon Go has to be put in context – not all product categories are suitable – e.g. loose vegetables are not suitable and in a climate where consumers are looking for less packaging this may not always work. Self-scan is another option but it also has issues in terms of fraud – which requires special training of store staff to avoid – technology again may help in the future, but at what investment cost?

The concept makes intuitive sense. In my many research projects focusing on grocery shopping, checkout was always one of the most important and the least favorable attributes among shoppers. Think about the current approach either via a cashier or self checkout. A shopper needs to put the item into the shopping cart, stand in line at checkout, retrieve the items for scanning and bagging and then put them back into the cart!

Obviously, technology will be key. I’m always reminded of the saying, “technology is great, when it works.” However the concept would make for the biggest improvement to date for in-store shopping.

Here is what we know about technology. Tomorrow it will be faster, cheaper, work better and will be able to do things we never even imagined today. How many short years ago were there comments in these discussions on how automated technology was too expensive to install and had too many hiccups? Yet it just keeps progressing.

Like online, the more shoppers that experience any degree of automated technology the more there are who will stick with it and gravitate to it after the pandemic.

With regard to the survey, a majority of people said Amazon Go will be a threat to the likes of Walmart or Kroger. What is more likely is that Amazon will be selling their technology to the likes of Walmart or Kroger, if those retailers can’t come up with their own technology. Amazon will make boatloads more money with considerably less investment by licensing their technology around the world than opening stores across the country.

The pandemic has definitely accelerated the desire for automated checkout technology from the standpoint of many consumers, as they prefer to keep contact and interaction with associates to a minimum. While the Amazon Go model may not be the future, there is a desire from consumers for a contactless, convenient checkout option that doesn’t involve standing in line and interacting with a cashier.

Amazon and Alibaba validated the new frictionless checkout industry when they both came offline in 2017. The pandemic brought a lot more attention to the new frictionless checkout industry as part of retail stores’ future. Overall, the pandemic accelerated many different pilot projects and investment deals into this new industry. However the actual technology rollouts accelerated to help retailers respond to the pandemic are scan and go mobile checkout solutions. Reaching over 30 percent shopper adoption at top locations, scan and go mobile checkout has established proven results and attracted a lot more retailer adoption during the pandemic. Examples of top U.S. grocers accelerating their scan-and-go programs during this time include Fairway, Westside Market, Big Y, Mckeever Price Chopper, Mother’s Market, Co-Opportunity, Hy-Vee, Walmart, Sam’s Club, H-E-B, Kroger, Wegmans, Dollar General, Ahold and more.