Kroger to introduce physical checkout-less shopping by Daniel Keyes on Dec 29, 2017, 10:11 AM Advertisement
 This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "E-Commerce Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Kroger will improve its cashierless checkout initiative, called "Scan, Bag, Go," as it rolls it out to 400 new stores in 2018, Business Insider reports. Currently, the program, which was tested in 20 stores this year, allows shoppers to scan the barcodes of their selected products with a smartphone or Kroger-provided scanner as they shop and pay at a self-checkout register. In the future, Kroger plans to take that a step further by allowing customers to skip physical checkout processes entirely and pay directly in the Kroger app after scanning items. It's unclear when exactly this feature will be introduced, but it could greatly change Kroger's in-store shopping experience. Smartphone self-checkout has the potential to draw consumers to Kroger. Grab-and-go stores with smartphone-based self-checkout are the retail innovation consumers are most likely to use, according to a study from Retail Info Systems. This suggests that consumers are open to the new technology, which is likely because consumers are interested in reducing shopping time and adding convenience. That could help bring new shoppers to the chain — the innovation is particularly popular with Gen Z, and so it could allow Kroger to bring in younger consumers and become their go-to-grocer as they become adults. That could become increasingly valuable as Gen Z becomes the biggest generation of US consumers over the next decade. Kroger may be leading the race among grocers to introduce a cashierless shopping experience, but it hasn’t won yet. Walmart and Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, are both developing their own cashier-less technology that would rival Kroger’s. At the same time, JD.com is planning to open its own unmanned stores and plans to license out the technology, which could aid other grocers. Kroger may be beating its American grocer rivals to the punch, but the other retailers’ technologies are rumored to not require shoppers to scan their products at all, which makes Kroger's less seamless. If it wants to win, Kroger will need to continue to update its program and possibly find a way to drop the “scan” from Scan, Bag, and Go. To receive stories like this one directly to your inbox every morning, sign up for the E-Commerce Briefing newsletter. Click here to learn more about how you can gain risk-free access today.
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