A few years ago, one of the technological trends was to have unmanned checkout stands in large shopping centers, where people could pass through without stopping, and the “system” would charge them for what they had purchased automatically.
This was the theory that began to be used in Amazon Go stores, and that was expected to be a new market trend. But years have passed and that has not been the case.
Indeed, a few years ago the technology of unstaffed checkout stands seemed to be booming. Amazon Go, a fully automated store concept, opened its doors in Seattle in 2018 and quickly became a success. Other companies, such as Walmart and Kroger, began experimenting with their own versions of unmanned checkout stands.
The promise of these positions was clear: reduce checkout wait times and improve the customer experience. With unmanned checkout kiosks, customers could simply walk by the kiosk with their purchases and the system would take care of everything else. There would be no need to wait in line, pay in cash or enter your credit card details.
However, despite their theoretical potential, unstaffed checkout stands have not become widespread. In 2024, they are still an exception in most shopping centers.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
There are several reasons for this. First of all the technology of unmanned checkout stands is not yet fully developed. Facial and object recognition systems are not yet perfect and can make mistakes. This can result in customers having to wait for an employee to fix the problem.
Secondly, unmanned checkout stands are quite expensive to set up and maintain. Companies must invest in hardware, software and maintenance personnel.
Third, customers are not completely convinced of the convenience of unmanned checkout stands. Some customers prefer human interaction, and others are more comfortable paying cash.
Currently, cashier payment systems with a person are very fast and very reliable, and if we look a little we can see that it does not take long to complete the purchasing process.
It is clear that we must always seek a balance between automation and the efficiency of any process. And paying at the cashier is one of them, which today seems to be better served by people.
The future remains to be seen, but they would have to improve the “systems” a lot and lower their costs, so that it would be profitable to eliminate the help of the cashier to the customer.
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