Users of Sainsbury’s scan and shop service, SmartShop, may soon be able to skip queues at checkouts with the start of ‘checkout-free’ payments.
The supermarket brand is currently running a trial that allows customers to pay for purchases using payment-enabled SmartShop handsets.
Currently, the trial is being run at two stores, in Richmond and in Kempton and is in its very early test stages.
The new checkout-free trial is said to ‘reduce friction’ for shoppers and follows a recent launch of AI cameras at self-checkouts to stop theft.
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Sainsbury’s trials new checkout-free payment method
Sainsbury’s new pay with SmartShop handsets will allow customers to tap their card on the device to pay.
According to The Grocer, once the payment has gone through, shoppers will be able to choose an emailed receipt or print a receipt at a physical bay.
Once the payment has gone through, shoppers then just place the handsets back into the ports as they leave the store.
Sainsbury’s future stores director Darren Sinclair told The Grocer: “I think about this as trying to reduce friction, improve payment and simplify the shopping journey, as well as the future potential space.”
Sinclair added that he hopes the trial will encourage more people to use SmartShop, sharing that the devices allow them to see “how people shop”.
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Explaining: “We don’t see the physical customer, just see the heat, so we can see which ends are looked at, which screens are looked at and the flow around the store.
“That’s massively insightful when we are working out store formats, or when we are doing Nectar screens for suppliers.”
The new trial from Sainsbury’s is still in the early stages, with shoppers only able to pay on devices and handsets unable to process colleague discounts or swipe a physical Nectar card.
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