5 minute read
Retail Opinion - John Ryan explores contactless shopping
Technology and
service with a smile?
Retail expert John Ryan heads south of the River Thames to check out Aldi’s entrance into the cashless world to see whether the concept will ever replace a friendly smile…
At the time of writing, it’s six months since German budget grocer Aldi decided that Greenwich would be a good place to trial a checkout-free store. What could possibly go wrong? Amazon had been unveiling branch after branch of its Amazon Fresh checkout-free format in central and inner London for more than a year and so there must be something in it.
The premise is simple. When you enter a store of this kind you download an app, link it to your bank by uploading a debit/ credit card and then use the app to generate a QR code that gets you into the store. Once inside, select what you want and then walk out… you will have been charged thanks to the many cameras and motion sensors working out what you’ve taken off the shelves during your visit.
A survey has just arrived in your correspondent’s inbox asking for feedback about the Aldi Greenwich store and, to be honest, it’s not all positive from this end. Standing watching numerous shoppers trying to download the app and then form a link with their bank was instructive as it was both time-consuming and frustrating. Some gave up and headed to Sainsbury’s across the square.
But on a broader point, could this sort of thing work for those whose business it is to sell toys from a physical store? On the Amazon Fresh stores it is perhaps worth observing that a lot of us already have the Amazon app on our phones and therefore the initial hurdle is not perhaps quite so difficult to clear. Equally, it is worth noting that Amazon has, for some time, been selling the technology that underpins its Amazon Fresh portfolio, and the outcome has been that a number of travel retailers now feature the ‘just walk out’ system, which they have bought under licence.
To return to toy shops then, would there be anything to be gained from a store in which shoppers could be left to their own devices, as it were, without the burden of having to physically pay for their purchases at the conclusion of their shopping journey? And here, on a straw poll of one, there is no hard answer. Yes, we’re British and deeply reticent when it comes to being either sold anything or to having to interact with people, but the matter of payment at a counter is deeply ingrained. Not only does it mark the triumphant end of a mission that began when the realisation dawned that tomorrow is Joshua’s 11th birthday, but in talking to somebody while a purchase is made there is the psychological comfort of knowing that should something go wrong there is a human side to the process. Technology of almost any kind is only as good as the manner in which it is presented, and while there are currently a lot of pundits intent on telling us that stafffree stores are the way of the future, it’s still good to have somebody on hand when help is required. There is also the matter of consumer suspicion. It just doesn’t, as things stand, feel entirely correct seemingly not paying for an item before leaving a store. Yes, there may be the vicarious thrill of feeling that you have been involved in a spot of shoplifting, but that sense is quashed within a couple of minutes of heading beyond the threshold when your phone informs you that you a sum of money has been removed from your bank account.
Times have changed, however. We’ve been through a pandemic and are now familiar with contactless shopping, and ideas of money and what it means have undergone a fundamental shift. Hard currency – aka coins and notes – increasingly looks to be a thing of the past, with most of us prepared instead to wave a card or phone over a reader. From here it is a smaller jump than might be imagined to the checkout-free store - and there is another point to be considered.
In almost every checkout-out free enterprise there are staff waiting to assist. For those in the toy shop business this may indeed mean that not manning the till translates to more time spent with your customers.
As a category, toys are unusual in retail insofar as much of what can be found in a store may not be entirely selfexplanatory and a degree of demonstration/help/selling will be required. This could mean a future in which toys are more readily understood for the simple reason that there are more people at hand to explain what they do and why the recipient might like them.
The question then is whether we will adopt checkout-free en masse, regardless of the nature of the product being sold? For younger, more tech-savvy folk the answer will almost certainly be yes, but this comes with qualifications. The idea that stores won’t need staff is a little wayward for anything but the most basic items. We may not like to admit it, but we want people to help on our terms: when it is needed.
As ever, it’s a matter of balance and knowing how many staff will be needed and how far the no-checkouts idea can be pushed. This is a change that is on its way and the toy retail sector will be as affected as any other in the medium to long term. Meanwhile, it’s probably best to wait and see. Early adoption of anything new is not without its perils and it is certain that what’s being used now will be improved upon.
Technology and people may yet equate to physical service with a smile.
