Fast Lanes and Price Checks: Navigating Self-Checkout

Welcome to our new Retail Razor Show, DataBlades, our new standalone Retail Razor

Show, where we talk real world numbers andslice through measurable consumer insights

based on research at the point of sale.

And bringing us that slicing and dicing ofdata is Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating.

TruRating helps retailers heardirectly from validated shoppers

daily, and recently had a majormilestone of half a billion responses.

Retailers using TruRating average an80 percent response rate on questions

asked, made possible by asking a singlerotating question directly on the POS

pinpad, making it a seamless part ofthe shopper's checkout experience.

TruRating also works with theirretail partners to develop consumer

insights reports by running questionson an industry topic or theme.

These anonymous responses are linked tometrics such as basket size and repeat

visits to produce industry changinginsights like the ones Georgina will share

with us today and raise our data blades.

I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.

And I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.

Welcome Georgina.

Thank you both.

It's great to be here today.

So today Retail Razor Data Bladestopic is all about consumer

sentiment towards self checkout.

Georgina, tell us more.

So, imagine you've spent a reasonableamount of time picking out your perfect

items, navigating through the aisles, andfinally arriving at the checkout counter,

and that's when the magic or the mayhemhappens, and it's really in those last

few moments of that shopping experiencethat can, yeah, make or break your view.

So, while checking out youroptions in many retailers now, are,

uh, self checkout and or cashier.

So which do you choose and why?

And at Tru Rating, that's what wereally wanted to get under the skin of.

And that question sparked our research oncustomer sentiment towards self checkout.

So we asked, what do you likebest about self checkout?

65 percent of shoppersanswered less wait time.

20 percent that they can check theprices and 15 percent answered that

they can scan at their own pace.

It sounds like a no brainer, but thebiggest perk that consumers really

value when it comes to self checkoutis, it's the speed and that convenience.

It's about that swift andseamless transaction and that

final sprint to the finish line.

So it's vital that retailers reallypull out all the stops to actually

ensure that they're delivering onthat and that this point of the

consumer journey is quick and smooth

Well, this is a really interestingone to me because I have to say, if

I were the consumer answering thequestion, I probably would have looked

for the choice that says nothingreally, because I'm not personally

a fan of most self checkout systems.

But it's interesting that you found thatspeed was the number one choice because

that's probably my complaint about selfcheckout systems that don't work well.

It's because they didn't letme get through checkout faster

because something went wrong.

And somehow I always seem to have theability to find that one item in the

store that as soon as you get to the selfcheckout, this just has no way to scan.

It doesn't work.

And until you get someone to come byand reset the system or do something

through it, it will not let you check out.

And of course that's the oppositeof speed and convenience, right?

Yeah, very true.

Mm

Yeah.

I mean, I'm never a big proponentproponent of transferring work from

paid employees to unpaid customers ortaking a smile away when I had a chance

to make somebody smile before they walkout the door, but this is nothing new.

It's never going to go away.

It's really about how we adaptself checkout into our customer

journey and our customer experience.

Self checkout dates all the wayback to the Piggly Wiggly with

the self serve first self servicesupermarket back in the 1900s.

So, however we look at it, it'sbeen here, it's going to stay.

But really understanding howcustomers are using it and how

brands can adjust, I think.

It's a really key point into reallyasking customers what they think about it.

Are they enjoying it?

Do they like it?

of stores I've heard are almost, Ithink I heard some type of stat that

like, 55 percent of all sales lastyear went through a self checkout.

That's a big number.

It's a big number.

It wasn't me.

Well, so I, I'm also curiousabout the, the, the second number,

Georgina, you gave the 20 percentthat said they could check prices.

So I have to think if, if I'm theretailer and I'm hearing you report

these insights back to them, is thatmaking me think that, maybe I need to

have that ability to check prices atmaybe at scattered throughout the store.

To me, my best example is Target, right?

Target has all these checks, pricecheck stations all over the store where

you can just go and scan something.

If all you need to know is check theprice, I would think that if, I mean,

that's one fifth of your responsesare saying, I just, I, I liked it,

but I could check the prices first.

So I assume that means if I'm one ofthose shoppers and I didn't know the

price, I didn't realize that was going tobe, maybe I decided not to buy that item

when I got to the self checkout and Isuppose from a, mentality perspective that

probably makes that customer feel better.

They can just put it aside and thenhaving had to have done that with the

cashier and then felt like they'retelling the cashier, Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to buy that.

Can you not put, notinclude that in my purchase?

It's a little more awkward that way.

So I could see how that would be anappeal, but I'm curious, do you do you

think retailers would use that kindof information then say, Oh, maybe I

need to do something else in the store.

Now that I know 20 percent of mycustomers want this information.

Yeah, we've definitely it'sthe time of experimentation.

I think for a lot of retail, it's likeinnovation is, is on an all time high.

And with, especially with TruRating,we can, do AB tests rolling something

new out in stores A and keepingstore B constant, and seeing how

that impacts customer experience.

how much they pay andhow often they return.

And, when we have shared some ofthis self checkout, research, some of

it's pretty, can be pretty damning,customer experience can plummet often.

And so it's really to a retailer.

Okay, so when we, when we know that that'sa risk, what can we do to try and, support

the customer at that last point in thejourney and make it a better experience?

So we've worked with retailers,testing out, assisted self checkout.

So, employing someone with the, yeah,the mandate to stand at those banks,

smile, make sure consumers can findthat barcode that they know how to scan.

And yeah, and that'sbeen really beneficial.

And they've seen the uptick incustomer experience down to that.

That A B testing I can see very valuable.

I have a feeling that we are goingto see more advertisements at

self checkout in the near future.

It'll be much more common thatwe're going to have to watch an

ad before we can swipe our card.

And I think Tru Rating willbe providing some critical

data on that sentiment change.

You cannot wait to feed back

with your views on that.

Yeah.

I hope every single retailer that isplanning on putting ads on those screens

is already a Tru Rating customer.

Exactly.

And if not, there's still time.

Call me.

There is still time.

This is great, Georgina.

Thank you so much for joining ustoday's Retail Razor Data Blades.

Thank you so much.

It's been an absolute pleasure andI look forward to the next one.

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Thanks for joining us.

Until next time, keep cuttingthrough the clutter and stay sharp.

This is the Retail Razor Data Blades.