Tempting shoppers to use self-checkout can be a long process, according to John Chan, a product manager at Advantech, during the company’s World Partner Conference in Taipei this month.

“It can be hard to tempt them over to this,” he said. “You need people to assist them from the very beginning, and then it has to be easy to use and to operate. It needs to be easy to pay.”

He said technology such as RFID tags could help make it easier, as baskets could be automatically scanned.

“When they see others using it, they will be tempted,” he said, adding it would be a bit like the transition of using mobile phones to pay, doing it one step at a time.

Wissanuphong Wongwa, co-CEO of software company AdaSoft, said in Thailand stores were being forced to deploy self-checkout due to a lack of staff.

“It is hard to find enough cashiers in Thailand,” he told the conference. “If stores don’t have cashiers, how do they serve the customers? You can expand self-checkout without adding staff.”

He acknowledged though that there could be pain points as it made it easier for dishonest customers.

“You have to make sure the customer does the good thing,” he said. “You need to have loss prevention measures. Also, you still need staff in case the system does not work properly, so you will need cashiers to help customers learn to use self-checkout.”

Important, he said, was creating a faster experience for the customer and using it to gather data about customers.

“The customer is king,” he said, “and you will know your customer better based on the data.”

Tej Singh Rathore, who works for Advantech in India, said 23 per cent of shoppers saw checking out as a pain point and 78 per cent of them did not return to stores if the checkout experience was too bad. He said the main users of self-checkout were 21 to 24 year olds, who had a short attention span and thus it was important to make sure the self-checkout did not become a pain point.

One of the big problems he said was shops choosing the wrong hardware for self-checkout.

“Most important is the user experience,” said Rathore, “so get feedback from the customer as to how it works for them. Customers just want a fast checkout. Smart checkout will increase sales and will shorten lines. It will improve the customer experience.”

On other technologies, he said smart signs could help increase sales by 20 per cent and increase customer satisfaction by 33 per cent. He was also a fan of RFID technology as it helped prevent theft and tracked assets.

“It ensures products are always in stock,” he said.

But he said the one technology that was crucial was allowing customers to checkout with their mobile phone.

“Without mobile checkout, you will lose the game in the future,” he said. “Everything is coming to mobile. You need to focus on mobile checkout. It is convenient for the customer and less space is required.”

Advantech (www.advantech.com) product sales manager Patrick Kuan said it was important to remember retailers wanted to make more money. “You don’t want customers running away because the checkout line is too long,” he said.