Retail Leader: Scan and Go’s Viability Depends on Advancing Tech

The retail industry has seen a major shift towards technology in recent years, and one of the most promising innovations is Scan & Go technology. Scan and go allows shoppers to scan products as they take them off the shelf, and then pay directly in the app before leaving the store, putting independence into shoppers’ hands while also allowing them to shop at their own pace and avoid waiting in checkout lines.

While Scan & Go offers many benefits, there are also some challenges that need to be addressed for the technology to succeed. One of the biggest challenges is loss prevention, as retailers have reported high losses due to intentional and unintentional theft. Some retailers have dropped Scan & Go systems due to these losses, while others are using a range of interventions, such as randomized cart checks and exit gates, to mitigate theft.

Shopper using Scan & Go

Mickey Balter, CEO and Co-Founder of Oriient, suggests that the viability of Scan & Go moving forward depends on retailers keeping track of shoppers’ locations in the store throughout the journey. By using indoor location services that integrate into the Scan & Go systems, retailers can add advanced logic to the alert and flagging systems to make fraud detection more reliable. This means that shoppers can get scan-reminder notifications if they left a department they lingered in without scanning an item or scanned items abnormally, while retailers can get alerts for store security only for actual abnormal shopping behaviors based on shopper-lingering tendencies and even suspicious journeys that do not follow natural shopper patterns.

According to Balter, retailers need to find a way to maximize the potential of Scan & Go technology while minimizing losses. The technology has already shown that it can offer consumers more independence while shopping and allow store resources to be used more efficiently. However, retailers need to keep incorporating effective scalable technologies, like indoor GPS, to make Scan & Go a standard checkout method that will exist alongside traditional checkout and self-checkout lines.

A shopper navigating to and scanning a product

In summary, Scan & Go technology has the potential to revolutionize the shopping experience for consumers and retailers alike, but it also presents challenges that need to be addressed for the technology to succeed in the long term. By incorporating advanced logic and effective technologies, retailers can maximize the potential of scan and go while minimizing losses and ensuring a seamless shopping experience for consumers.

Learn how in-store location services can improve fraud detection here: https://www.oriient.me/device-location-is-the-solution-for-reducing-loss-in-mobile-self-checkout/.