To Scan, or Not To Scan, That Is the Question! (And Thankfully We Have the Answer)

To Scan, or Not To Scan, That Is the Question! (And Thankfully We Have the Answer)

Written by Finn McConway, Innovation Consultant at F!S Group.In the last few weeks, we’ve seen quite a bit of chat and debate around the increased implementation of automated customer service and checkouts in the likes of M&S in their fantastic new café format as well as Tesco rolling out more self-service checkouts.The Retail Gazette reported earlier this month about a protest being planned at Welwyn Garden City railway station to deliberately target the attendees of the Tesco AGM. This was off the back of Tesco’s announcement last summer that they would be pulling out the majority of manned checkouts from many of its larger stores, and replacing them with self-service checkouts.The Daily Telegraph were up in arms (when are they not?) about the new M&S digital cafes and them alienating older shoppers who struggled with the technology as well as losing the human interaction and famous customer service that M&S is renowned for. However, the new café format has seen strong initial sales indicators with growth of 15% in the trial stores so is clearly hitting the mark by and large.On the Tesco self-service checkouts, it wasn’t just a noisy minority on social media getting some traction as we saw with the bizarre over-amplification of the Asda Just Essentials range - a petition on Change.org calling on Tesco to limit the expansion of their self-service checkouts and bring back staff had gained almost a quarter of a million signatures.With this in mind, we decided to talk to our dedicated community to understand how shoppers really feel on this increasingly topical subject that you imagine will only become more of a hot potato if Tesco, the market leader, has effectively gone all in on self-service.Is this the right thing for consumers even if it makes operational sense at face value? Is it a one-size-fits-all approach across all store formats and shopper missions?Read on for the key takeouts from our data.

What do consumers prefer for bigger shops?

• For bigger shops, consumer preference is almost neck and neck - manned checkouts are preferred by 31% of shoppers vs self-service checkouts at 28%. 42% don't have a preference.
• It seems Tesco know their shoppers despite the petition against them, with 45% of Tesco shoppers preferring self-service checkouts for bigger shops - a sizeable 20% more than manned checkouts (25%). This is by far the highest of any of the retailers - a sign of shoppers becoming conditioned?
• Aldi should tread carefully though with their self-service rollout, as we’ve seen 50% of their shoppers prefer manned checkouts for bigger shops vs just 10% self-service. (Why wouldn’t you given the staggering efficiency and speed of the checkouts?! Like a bullet train!).
• 50% of shoppers would either join a long line for a manned checkout or join a long line and only resort to self-service checkouts if it was taking too long.

Ensuring the technology is fit for purpose and delivers a seamless shopping experience will be paramount if rolling out self-service checkouts as a majority is to be a success. One of the main drivers for the dislike of self-service checkouts for bigger shops was it being seen as too time-consuming (42%).A note of caution given the impact on profitability that online shopping poses - amongst those who dislike self-service for bigger shops, 1 in 5 feel they may as well do an online shop instead. 15% feel self-service checkouts provide a poor shopping experience, and 1 in 10 feel they are difficult when shopping with children (I shudder at the thought of navigating self-service on a bigger shop with my 5-year-old trying to sneak anything and everything in the trolley, whilst my 1-year-old is trying to open and eat everything in between wanting to climb out of the trolley!).

What do consumers prefer for convenience shops?

As mentioned, it’s not a one size fits all approach and stores would be wise to focus on convenience in the first instance as there is far more permission here from shoppers given the mission and need state. Here, self-service is preferred by almost half of shoppers and is significantly ahead of the preference for manned checkouts (8%), with 45% having no preference.

Self-service vs manned checkouts: the conclusion

In the end, we found that for 78% of shoppers, it would make no change if their preferred shop switched to majority self-service checkouts in their larger stores, with just 8% saying they’d resort to switching to online shopping. 15% said they would switch retailers, so Tesco clearly feels it is an educated gamble worth taking and that shoppers will come to accept it in time. The key though, given the fairly even split, is to maintain choice for consumers.Is it also a differentiator for the mults vs Aldi/Lidl in delivering a pleasurable shopping experience and store environment? Ultimately with their larger store footprints and operations, they will always struggle to compete on efficiency and convenience vs the discounters, so why not embrace and champion what makes you different?

Need help to understand your consumer's wants and needs?

At F!S Group (Good Sense Research and Food Innovation Solutions) we are passionate about being consumer-centric and ensuring the voice of the consumer is incorporated throughout our work and end-to-end innovation process. We’re proud of our 20k-strong consumer community that we cultivate and manage ourselves.Want to ensure you have consumer-centric and validated products? We'd love to help! Check us out and let's get talking (apologies, was an open goal that one!).