No more waiting in checkout lines for customers at a European convenience store group. As the following Digital Journal article reports, U.S firm FutureProof Retail is enabling the mobile app based solution for Okay stores in Belgium.
Following the launch at its Spar supermarkets, Colruyt Group will make the FutureProof Retail (FPR) line-free mobile self-scanning checkout solution also available at OKay stores starting in OKay De Pinte (Aug. 22), OKay Compact at Grootsermentstraat (Aug. 28), OKay Pepingen (Aug. 29) and OKay Ohey (Sept. 5).
FPR’s solution allows customers to scan and pay for products using the Scan.Pay.Go. app on their smartphones at any participating Spar Colruyt Group, OKay or OKay Compact store. They can then leave the store without waiting in line at the cash register. Digital scales are available in-store to weigh fruit and vegetables and simply add them to the shopping basket. Customers save time and are able to bag products right away without having to take them out and re-bag at the cash register.
”After successfully rolling out FPR’s mobile checkout solution in a select number of Spar Colruyt Group grocery stores earlier this year, we are excited to be able to also help make the customer experience at the OKay convenience stores even more ‘convenient’,” says Di Di Chan, president of FutureProof Retail.
Not as technically complex as the Amazon Go store technology, but with a lot less capital investment needed by merchants, mobile app based self-checkout solutions are becoming more available. Merchants of all sizes can adopt this scanning based self-checkout at a fraction of the cost of more sophisticated sensor and camera systems. C-stores and grocery stores would be vertical segments that can benefit as well as please time-strapped shoppers.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group