Every phone is a till with ‘pocket checkout’ trial

Barclaycard's pocket checkout system will allow customers to scan and pay for their shopping using their mobile phone, potentially removing all interaction with a cashier or counter.

Users download the company’s Grab+Go app and then use their phone’s camera to scan the barcodes. When they have finished they simply click ‘I’m done’ and walk out. They describe this transaction without interaction method an ‘invisible payment.’

Barclaycard says the Grab+Go system is suitable for low value items such as convenience retail, and believes the technology can save both shoppers and retailers time.

Their director of design Usman Sheikh comments: “The way in which people shop and pay has evolved significantly over the past decade, and as the use of mobile and wearable payments grows, we are constantly looking at how we can use technology to make our customers’ lives easier.”

With loss prevention a key issue for many convenience retailers, Retail Express queried how shop staff will be able to track which shoppers have paid for their goods when they walk out. A spokesperson from Barclaycard explained that merchants are given a tablet that monitors each customer’s digital baskets and when payment is made.

The Grab+Go pocket checkout trial by Barclays is currently taking place in the company’s staff restaurants in the UK and US before a planned public rollout later on.

The technology represents a further development in retail mobility solutions – using mobile phones to monitor stock levels and drive sales, examples include beacon technology, RFID and app-based reward schemes. According to Zebra Technologies’ retail director Mark Thomson, this technology is starting to become available for smaller retailers.

Discussing concerns that the cost and resources needed to use this tech put it beyond the reach of convenience retailers, Thomson said, “five years ago they were correct, the access wasn’t there for independents but there’s a revolution that has taken place since then.”

However, research by the ACS shows that it may not be retailers that need convincing of the value of digital and ‘invisible payments’, it’s their customers. 77% of convenience store transactions are cash payments, and staff friendliness was a key reason why customers choose to shop in their local stores.