April 06, 2021
One of the biggest complaints consumers have about the in-store retail experience is long checkout lines. As a result, consumer interest in technologies that allow them to bypass checkout lines is high. In the article “Self-Checkout is Changing the Retail Landscape,” digital analyst firm eMarketer cites a survey that found 71% of consumers were interested in scan-and-go apps and 61% were interested in unmanned stores.
Based on that data, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that ResearchandMarkets.com forecasts a 10.2% compound annual growth rate for the self-checkout market between 2020 and 2025.
These technologies can, however, expose retailers to an increased risk of shrinkage. To mitigate this risk, stores using autonomous or self-checkout must typically beef up their retail security systems with additional cameras and supporting systems to deter misuse of the checkout systems. Some are even using artificial intelligence to enhance the ability of security systems to detect fraud at checkout.