More and more stores in Germany and Europe are using self-service checkouts that automatically recognize each product - no manual scanning, no contact with salespeople and no cash. Is this how we will shop in the future?
At its largest branch in Europe, the Spanish fashion chain Bershka offers a futuristic shopping experience: customers simply place their goods at a special register that automatically recognizes the item - without any scanning or contact with an employee. Then the customer pays, removes the theft protection himself and leaves with the goods.
Huge increase
According to the research institute EHI, the number of shops with self-service checkouts has continued to grow in recent years. If in 2019 there were 903 stores in Germany that offered Self-Checkout, last year 2023 their number rose to 4,270. In addition, there are mobile self-service systems that work using a hand-held scanner or a smartphone app . Some stores even offer both.
In the sale of groceries, in addition to REVE and Edeka, the discounters Lidl and Aldi also already offer the new service. The number of stores equipped in this way is already so large that it is safe to say that they already cover almost the entire territory of the country, retail expert Jörg Funder from the University of Applied Sciences in Worms told ARD.< /p>
The advantages
The dm drugstore chain has also been offering self-service checkouts since 2022. According to the company, they are already available in more than 350 stores in Germany, and the new way of shopping is well received by customers – especially during peak hours when there are many people when it saves them a lot of time.
It's not just customers who benefit. Commercial companies can use their staff more rationally – employees, instead of cashiers, can advise customers and help them. According to Jörg Funder, this will allow retailers to increase the volume of purchases and therefore profits.
Dm explicitly states that self-service checkouts do not mean that companies will lay off staff or reduce the working hours of their employees, ARD explains.
New technologies versus traditions
While many retailers see the benefits of self-service checkouts, for others they are not an option. Especially for smaller stores that do not do a lot of turnover, the capital investment does not pay off. In addition, it depends on the type of goods sold: if fast customer service is particularly important for a drug store, this is not very desirable in the fashion industry.
In this regard, ARD quotes a manager of a fashion store who says that personal contact with the customer is most important for his company – especially when it comes to expensive clothes. This is another reason why the familiar checkout areas there will continue to exist - despite the rise of self-service checkouts.
However, technology is constantly evolving and will offer new opportunities to improve shopping. Like Bershka, other large companies such as Zara, Uniqlo and Decathlon now also offer the self-checkout function without scanning, highlights ARD.
The next step: automated payment
Amazon is currently testing even newer technology in London that will make even self-service checkouts redundant. The customer will simply put the desired products in his bag, and when leaving the store, special radio frequency chips will automatically recognize the selected goods. The final action is to deduct the purchase amount from the customer's account. This will eliminate the need to go through a self-service checkout and the entire physical payment process.
But at eight to ten cents per chip, the new devices are still relatively expensive and not cost-effective for all retailers. This applies especially to the trade in food products, where the chips in question would make shopping significantly more expensive, ARD also notes.