Self-checkout arrives at hardware stores
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Are you ready for the “tap-’n-go” world of self-checkout at your own retail hardware store?
Can you visualize it?
Customers stepping up to your self-checkout station. By themselves. No cashier. Just them and their hardware items. And their credit card. They tap, or swipe, grab the receipt, and go about their day.
One hardware store deployed a self-checkout prototype a year ago.
“We have been refining our prototype in a single location in Middlebury, Vermont,” said Will Aubuchon, CEO at Aubuchon Company, which owns more than 100 stores.
The results are promising. The CEO said their customers appreciate the option to check themselves out.
“It’s important to note that we never force customers to use the option. When the line for our traditional registers backs up, we notice more self-checkout use. However, overall usage is still pretty low, about three to four percent of all transactions,” he said.
His family hardware business will be adding self-checkout to four more of their stores in the coming months, and another 20 stores in 2024.
This is a hands-on business, so what led the Aubuchon Company to launch self-checkout kiosks?
“The primary reason to launch self-checkout was to embody our core value of innovation and change,” said Aubuchon.
He wrote that they like to follow the phrase: Prioritize progress over perfection and be adaptable. He said they do this with two goals in mind:
“Goal number one is to offer a new convenient option for customers. Whether we like it or not, there is a new muscle-memory/customer-expectation being built up by consumers today – particularly in convenience retail formats.
“More and more, consumers have self-checkout options. We predict not offering some version of self-checkout one day will feel like not accepting credit cards. We may very well be wrong.
“Goal number two is to support sales by saving some limited amount of time at checkout so that our team can spend more time assisting customers,” said the CEO.
The timing on when to start self-checkout in their hardware store was based on their POS vendor (Mi9) offering this new capability and they were willing to test it.
This retail hardware business wanted to support the shift in consumer behavior to fast convenient checkout.
Easy is the word
To execute this new point of sale technology wasn’t as complicated as you might think.
“Since we exclude cash, special orders and hard to ring items like nuts and bolts, our self-checkout unit is relatively easy to maintain and manage. All that exists is a touch screen, wireless scanner, payment terminal and receipt printer,” said Aubuchon.
But customers still have to like it, he said, that’s where the bottom-line really is at.
“We focus on convenience, allowing our customers to have the shopping experience that they desire, including checkout options,” he said.
Some of their customers would prefer a streamlined checkout without the social interaction with employees, and in some cases, they are able to “skip the wait” if the checkout line is long.
Self-checkout at the big box
During Lowe’s latest Q3 earnings call, Joe McFarland, executive VP of stores updated investors on self-checkout strategy. “This past quarter, we fully retired the old self-checkout systems and have shifted to the proprietary self-checkout systems that we built for the home improvement shopper," he said.
They’ve seen greater customer adoption of these new systems since they’re so much easier to use, he said. “In fact, our front-end transformation is well underway, with approximately 450 stores planned by the end of this year.”
Over a three-year timeline, he said, “we’re revamping the checkout experience across all of our stores and increasing the selling space at the front, where we’re adding more merchandise right at checkout, with a new design that makes it easy to showcase grab-and-go items,” said the VP.
“And with this front-end transformation, we’re shifting to an easy-to-use assisted self-checkout, with cashiers who will be right there to answer questions and help customers when they need it,” said McFarland.
They have had positive feedback, he said, about the ease of the simple three-step process: One, optional phone number input for points/rewards; two, scan items; and three, pay to complete the transaction.
From an owner’s angle, the last question is: Has it been worth your money to have a self-checkout?
Many other retailers have made large investments in self-checkout with the goal of reducing payroll in order to generate a positive ROI.
Fortunately, our situation is different, said Aubuchon. “Our POS vendor made it affordable for us to add and test self-checkout, allowing us to focus more on the benefits of enhancing the shopping experience for some customers who prefer the convenience of a self-checkout option.”
Traditional checkout is far better for accepting cash, promoting new loyalty signups, and handling hard-to-ring items like small items and special orders, he said.
“However, our self-checkout option can handle points/rewards for existing members, plus a prompt to round up to a local charity if we have an in-store campaign occurring.”
Right now, an owner or manager might be thinking of starting self-checkout in their own hardware business.
First and foremost, he said, “you must have a point-of-sale provider that can furnish the software and IT support.”
Also, he reminds, the more complicated you make self-checkout the more difficult it will be to get your customers to adopt it. If it’s easy to use, customers will enjoy the experience.
“Have fun with it and be creative,” said Aubuchon. “There is a lot of negative stigma around self-checkout, but as the deployment of this tech deepens in the retail sector we need to make sure the interaction is just as positive as any other checkout experience.”
And focus on keeping it simple.
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