Improve retail self-checkout experience with Picklist Assistant

Self-checkout counters are a part of the contemporary retail landscape. Researchers forecast that their utilization rate in retail stores will grow at least 10% year on year for the next 5 years.

Self-checkout was envisioned as a frictionless way for customers to conduct their shopping without any human intervention. Yet customers still spend more time at them, many transactions require employee assistance and some shoppers are still wary of complex technologies.

Friction, accidental mis-scanning and check-out fraud

Self-checkout registers perform well with packaged goods with clear barcodes and labeling. However, they still require manual interaction when scanning loose products such as fruit. More than 65% of shoppers have at least one unwrapped product in their shopping cart, meaning they need to select the item from the picklist menu.

65% of shopping carts include at least one unwrapped product

This introduces friction and results in more time spent at the checkout counter. Additionally, it increases the chance for mis scanned items. It is easy for the consumer to accidentally select a McIntosh apple instead of an Empire one. This also may lead to checkout fraud – such as labeling avocados as cucumbers.

Introducing Computer Vision powered Check-out Picklist Assistant

Check-out Picklist Assistant is an AI image recognition software which automates the selection of unwrapped products. The software utilizes video feed from the self-checkout point-of-sale platform. The application automatically recognizes a particular product placed on the check-out counter and visualizes the product on the POS display. The platform also checks for mis-scanned or not scanned items, preventing check-out fraud.

The self-checkout platform provides many benefits for self-checkout register operators:

• Improving customer experience. The shoppers do not need to manually browse for unwrapped products in the POS picklist. The item placed on the counter is recognized automatically.

• Reducing check-out time. 65% of shopping carts include at least one unwrapped product. Selecting it automatically dramatically reduces customer turnaround time.

• Reducing manual supervision. More of the check-out transactions are completed without any employee assistance.
• Preventing check-out losses. The platform greatly reduces the possibility of accidental item mis-scanning or check-out fraud.

The self-checkout platform benefits for for self-checkout register operators

EasyFlow self-checkout Picklist assistant can be deployed on premises or via cloud infrastructure as SaaS. The software is platform agnostic and can be integrated via API with many different POS platform vendors.

Towards frictionless shopper experience

Self-checkout counters were supposed to reduce retailer costs and make checkout smoother. Yet the technology is not perfect. The AI self-checkout picklist assistant is a step towards better customer experience – without any needs to replace existing POS hardware or additional IT infrastructure costs.

Self-checkout picklist assistant is part of EasyFlow computer vision powered solutions for retailers. Our applications for queue management and shelf stock-level monitoring help retailers to harness real world analytical data to improve their business performance.

Ready to experience the future of retail? Give us a call!