Elevating the experience: why self-checkout is an untapped engagement mechanic
Once a customer makes it to the self-checkout kiosk, the opportunity to engage them has already passed by, hasn’t it? They’ve finished their shop and they’re out the door. Job done. Right?
Wrong! We say the moment a customer is about to leave is the perfect moment to convince them to come back. For grocery retailers, self-checkout represents a largely untapped opportunity to further increase customer engagement and ensure that customers keep returning.
Below we explore several ways you can embrace this opportunity, and we discuss how Lobyco’s innovative self-checkout solution can deliver optimal results.
How to utilise self-checkout to maximise customer engagement
With the right self-checkout system in place, you can increase customer engagement with a few simple actions.
Connect payment methods with your loyalty program
Connecting your payment methods with your loyalty program is one of the best ways to show your customers the tangible benefits they are receiving. When a customer can choose to pay with their bonus points at the self-checkout for example, they can clearly see the money they are saving, and how regular shopping with one retailer can quickly build up their benefits and rewards. It improves the customer’s value perception, which in turn increases engagement moving forward.
With Lobyco’s self-checkout solution, the loyalty program is effortlessly connected with all payment methods. Customers can even use Scan & Pay functionality. This allows them to scan items themselves on their own device as they shop, and pay directly through the app. These in-app payments are compatible with any loyalty benefits the customer may have, and combined with the checkout process, they significantly reduce time spent at the POS.
No pressure from other customers standing behind them in the queue; customers can shop and pay at their own pace. They have more time and space to focus, which makes paying with bonus or points accounts easier. Ultimately this creates a more seamless, and engaging shopping experience overall.
Integrate your existing loyalty program
By integrating your existing loyalty program with different payment methods you can make it much more useful for customers.This increased functionality and efficiency would likely make the program more integral to their shopping experience.
For self-checkout, Lobyco’s solution makes this process incredibly easy. As the Lobyco self-checkout software is agnostic, it is compatible with any loyalty program and tablet you may have.
Simply by setting up our software on your own tablets, you can create a self-checkout experience that incorporates your existing loyalty program. Keeping your customers engaged with your offerings right until they walk out the door.
Monetise your existing retail media offering to provide customer benefits
Speaking of offerings, self-checkout offers a valuable opportunity to expand your retail media capabilities.
With the self-checkout screen, you’ve essentially got a digital billboard that your customers are guaranteed to look at. If you utilise the space on your checkout screens effectively, you can engage customers with important offers and improve their overall experience.
You can easily set up on-screen messages, and let your customers know about upcoming events and promotions. You could also choose to keep your suppliers extra happy, and allow them to use the screens to upsell their products, or promote different product varieties.
Your customer engagement will increase as customers receive offers that benefit them, and you and your suppliers will make more sales. It’s a triple win, that’s worth ‘checking out’ for everyone!
Reduce fraud
Maximising customer engagement is crucial for any grocery retailer to be successful. It’s also very important to reduce fraud as much as possible from the self-checkout journey.
To help with this, Lobyco has added two key features to our self-checkout solution aimed at giving employees more tools to combat fraud:
Feature 1: Send All to Rescan
This feature was designed to empower employees to catch individuals who may be committing fraud without having to single them out.
By offering an option to activate a forced rescan to all customers, the individual in question remains hidden amongst other customers as a broad check is carried out. The rescan will automatically time out after 60 minutes, unless the employee deactivates it manually.
The feature also enables stores or fraud departments to request broad rescans. While providing a large quantity of valuable rescan data as more customers are taken out for rescans.
Crucially, Send All to Rescan helps to protect your bottom line by minimising shrinkage. A simple feature, that keeps your profits up.
Feature 2: Scan & Pay Fraud Prevention - Enhanced Accompanying Employee App
To prevent customers from committing fraud through Scan & Pay, your employees can use an enhanced accompanying app.
This accompanying app provides a basket overview screen. Making it easy for employees to see an overview of items a customer has scanned and purchased. Employees can select a customer for rescan on their next purchase if they deem the customer suspicious. The app will clearly show the number of scanned items and the total of the customer’s basket during the rescan. It will then be easy for employees to see if the customer has scanned all the items that are in their physical basket.
And if a customer tries to avoid the rescan by hiding, employees can press the “can’t find customer” option, and delete the basket.
Scan & Pay represents a huge step forward for grocery retailers and the customer experience. With Lobyco’s accompanying employee app, it’s possible to provide this seamless experience to your customers without significant revenue loss.
Your employees are empowered to act upon known fraud scenarios, your bad customers get caught, and the shopping experience is improved for your good customers. Could that be another triple win?
Gain multiple advantages with Lobyco’s self-checkout solution
Lobyco’s self-checkout solution is designed to make it as easy as possible for you to maximise your customer engagement. But it does more than that.
Our solution is significantly more cost-efficient than your traditional self-checkout kiosk. Unlike many traditional self-checkout machines, there are no hardware fees and ongoing licensing fees involved. And being an agnostic solution, Lobyco kiosks leave a much smaller footprint in store compared to traditional units. This frees up space, and gives retailers much more flexibility when it comes to in-store design and layout.
We know the industry moves fast, which is why we are geared up for self-checkout 2.0. Don’t hesitate to contact us today if you’d like to join in.
