The convenience sector may see double the number of self-service checkouts in five years’ time, said predictions at the ACS Conference 24.

A record number of retailers, suppliers and wholesalers gathered for this year’s ACS Conference in Birmingham on 30 April, under the theme ‘serving a changing UK’.

During one panel discussion, Mark McCammond, retail director at Henderson Group, said he expects that the percentage of self-service checkouts in convenience stores could rise to 70% in the UK.

According to ACS’ Local Shops Report 2023, 16% of stores in the sector currently have self-service checkouts.

“There’s a need to invest in self-service checkouts,” he said. “It’s more efficient, there’s a demand for them. Rising wage bills will also factor into this.”  

During the event, it was also revealed that retailers should expect an increase in loyalty pricing. In less than a year, Co-op reached its three-year target for its loyalty pricing scheme, with five million having signed up – the target has been extended to eight million.

Shirine Khoury-Haq, group CEO of Co-op, said: “The rise of loyalty pricing over the past year has become huge. Personalisation is driving more shopper loyalty. In previous times of high inflation, consumers shopped around, but we’re finding the schemes are actually making consumers more loyal to a single brand.”

Khoury-Haq also been revealed that loyalty schemes are increasingly appealing to younger customers, as 44% of the new members who joined in 2023 were aged 35 years or younger.

Energy costs

Energy usage and costs were also central to panel conversations, with discussions of how retailers can adapt to changing costs and environmental demands.

McCammond said he saved 16% of energy usage by adding doors to fridges.

“Technology can be a mindset amongst the staff, and your colleagues can make a difference. After that, you want to look at refrigeration,” he said.

Stephanie Wood, managing director of One Stop, added that retailers have a “moral obligation” as leaders for broade environmental challenges.

“Refrigeration and asset replacement is a double whammy, because we need to do that long term anyway, to get rid of some of those nasty gases,” she said.

“Tapping into Tesco’s Hedge Energy expertise to support our overall business model has been extremely helpful. It’s a culture of taking pride and really understanding what we can do differently in order to change the energy consumption in store. We also need clear guidance from government on what and when, for example with the DRS.”

Retail crime

Retail crime was also widely discussed at the conference. Khoury-Haq praised the Co-op’s efforts to combat theft, with Co-op having lobbied government and spent more than £200m on safety and security measures across stores in “past years”. Yet, she added that PCCs must take more action.

“It’s not an issue that retailers alone can fix. We’ve been lobbying to ensure that every single PCC candidate prioritises retail crime in their manifesto. So we’ve galvanized our tens of thousands of store colleagues and our millions of members to each write to their local PCC candidates to ensure that this is included in their manifestos.”

Meanwhile, Steve Basset, owner of Londis stores in Dorset, recognised the value of security systems for reducing aggression in store.

He said: “Facewatch has transformed business, by reducing a lot of aggression in store. Staff are safer, and have headsets that can connect to a central alarm system.”

Some retailers have looked to physically rearranging their store to alleviate crime levels.

Tom Dant, of Gill Marsh Forecourts, Lincolnshire, said: “We’ve been looking at the way we arrange our stores so that shoplifters have a harder job in actually [shoplifting]. We’re looking at the plans, and placing certain items next to the till. So, as staff we’ve got the best possible visibility, [but] it’s affecting the shoppers that actually want to shop with us, because we’re having to make it hard for them to find what they need what they are looking for.”

Social media

Jamie Davison, retail director at Bestway, spoke on the importance of social media being about “shouting about your business, your products, your services”.

“I think this is where we can absolutely demonstrate individuality and personality,” he added. “We’ve got some of the best examples in the room today of retailers that absolutely are all over this. Promote with a purpose, show off impactful stacks and store displays, and demonstrate consistency every day with new product development. What a brilliant example to get behind to demonstrate a real point of difference to drive footfall into your stores.”

Jonathan Tout, of Tout’s in Cheddar, Somerset, said: “We’ve got something in our office whose main job is just to spot trends. Her main job is social media. So, we are trying now to be a lot more reactive. So, when trends come up, we’re prepared.”

Meanwhile, Teresa Lindley, UK trading director of BP, added that social media enables retailers to spot the trends “that come out of left field and are unexpected”, as oppose to “big branded launches, which are planned”.

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