Smart shopping carts are replacing self-checkout systems due to the following 3 reasons

Some major supermarket chains are shutting down their self-checkout systems, others are deciding to launch smart shopping carts in their stores. There seems to be a trend that smart shopping carts are replacing self-checkout systems in the retail industry.

As there are 3 reasons :

(1) Theft can’t be prevented, while smart shopping carts can handle it.

Recently, a well-regarded supermarket chain Wegmans was shutting down its self-checkout option. It seems, though, that the more traditional self-checkout lanes don't undergo such great losses -- as long as there's a supermarket employee there to "help" customers.

Initially,self-checkout systems were fresh to customers, and have attracted a large number of customers to use them. Self-checkout systems also replace cashiers’ work, with self-checkout systems in the store, retailers usually hire fewer cashiers.

But some customers are taking advantage of self-checkout systems, they are making self-checkout theft, for example, a customer selects 11 items, but he just scans 9 items through the self-checkout systems. The supermarket will undergo great losses.

A smart shopping cart also supports customers' scam items’ bar codes and checkout, but if a customer forgets to scan one or more items, the smart shopping cart knows and will remind customers to scan. The main reason is that smart shopping cart has complicated loss prevention algorithms.

(2) Self-checkout systems only involve the payment process, while smart shopping carts accompany customers all the time.

Some other supermarkets shut down self-checkout systems due to that they think self-checkout systems won’t help them so much. The self-checkout systems involve customers’ payment process, customers need to scan items’ bar codes while they are done shopping, and retailers just provide customers an alternative payment choice.

A smart shopping cart accompanies customers in the whole shopping process, which supports customers scanning items’ bar codes, collecting customers shopping data, and sending customers precise coupons and promotional information. The smart shopping cart could help both retailers and customers.

(3) Self-checkout systems couldn’t solve the long queues problems, while smart shopping carts could.

The self-checkout systems ask customers to scan items’ bar codes one by one after they have done shopping. This means customers need to take out all items, and then scan them one by one, then customers acquire shopping bills and could pay for their shopping bills through self-checkout systems.

This checking-out process is the same as checking out through the cash counter, then customers wait in line at the self-checkout systems. There will be long queues at the self-checkout systems. That is to say, self-checkout systems couldn’t solve the long queues problems.

So how do smart shopping carts solve the long queues problems?

Smart shopping carts support customers to scan items’ bar codes when they are selecting items, when they are done shopping, the shopping bill appears on the touch-able screen automatically. Customers could finish the payment process anywhere in the supermarket, this distributed settlement solves the long queues problems effectively.