- 79 percent of customers expressing their preference for checkout-less shopping.
- Checkout free-shopping is a cashier-less checkout system that detects shoppers’ product preferences and bills them when they close their shopping trip.
- Cashierless checkout may be the way of the future with how well shoppers are responding.
In an ecommerce-focused world where retailers are constantly coming up with creative ways to bring consumers in the store, long checkout lines during the holidays can be a huge deterrent. Shopping online provides the ease of purchasing what you want without the long lines, so indie retailers need to find ways to solve this problem.
One thing that can greatly help reduce long lines is through cashierless checkout systems. With 79 percent of customers expressing their preference for checkout-less shopping, it is not surprising to see why 59 percent of U.S. shoppers see Amazon Go as a threat to Walmart and Kroger.
What is Checkout-Free Shopping?
According to Visionify, checkout free-shopping is a cashier-less checkout system that detects shoppers’ product preferences and bills them when they close their shopping trip. QR codes, smart shopping carts, RFID tags, and machine vision are the solutions that process transactions, invoices, and billing.
How do Checkout-Free Stores Work?
When a shopper selects an item and adds it to their bag, the process is captured by cameras. Then, image recognition adds the products to the shopper’s cart. This can all be done through a mobile app to connect the customer to the store’s database, and when the shopper is finished, the app will process an invoice and complete the payment process.
Cameras are cost-effective in this machine vision system and used for security reasons. In another way, a checkout-free solution assures security while simultaneously minimizing checkout costs, according to Visionify.
How Checkout-Free Shopping Can Benefit Your Store
For savvy store retailers eager to capitalize on this emerging trend, here is what you can get out of cashierless checkout:
1. Collect Live Data Throughout the Shopper’s Journey
Since the cameras will be detecting what the customers are putting into their baskets and what they actually end up buying, all of that data can be stored and used for further marketing initiatives. If you notice a shopper comes in regularly to purchase soap or lotion, you can use that data to send them email reminders to stock up on their favorite products after a certain amount of time has gone by since their last purchase.
2. Real-Time Inventory Tracking
Instead of having employees roam the store floor to see what items need restocking, the cashierless checkout system will track everything in your database. This way, retailers can simply look up their inventory through the system and see what has been purchased, what needs to be restocked on the floor, and which products you are out of completely.
3. Targeted Marketing
With the data you collect from customer purchases, you can now make personalized marketing campaigns since you know what shoppers love. Once consumers start to realize just how well you know them, it will encourage them to become loyal customers.
4. Save Money on Financial Resources
Even though this may seem like expensive technology to invest in at the beginning, in the long run, it can actually save retailers money. In a test session, these checkout systems actually increased revenues by $38 billion. Cashierless systems also do not need as much personnel working as traditional cashiers and merchants, and they also reduce the investment in security resources. Tracking systems or cameras linking items with individuals’ phones restrict shoplifting, which stores suffer from the most, according to AIMultiple.
Cashierless checkout may be the way of the future with how well shoppers are responding to these systems. They also make it super easy for retailers to do business, so it is a win-win for both parties. Give cashierless checkout a try today and see how your store can benefit.