Mobile Self-Scanning in Retail Stores

Since the invention of barcodes, scanning items has been a standard process in any retail store. Find out about the idea of mobile self-scanning and how it enhances the shopping experience. 

The history of self-checkout

Giving customers the power to scan the items in their baskets is a concept that has been around even before the introduction of what we know as Scan & Go technology today. Before smartphones came around, many retail stores offered so-called pre-scanning solutions to shoppers. Meaning they could pick up handheld barcode-scanners at the entrance, use them while moving around the store to scan each item, then move on to a regular cash register or a self-checkout terminal to complete their purchase and return the scanning device. 

The advantages of self-checkout technology

Even though today’s full mobile self-checkout technology is a much more convenient way, even these early mobile self-scanning solutions offer many advantages to retailers and shoppers alike, such as 

• less waiting time at the checkout,  
• improved hygiene, as no one but the customer touches the items in the basket,  
• more time for extensive customer service, and  
• an overall enhanced shopping experience. 

The next step: mobile self-checkout

Of course, to raise the convenient self-service to the next level, it makes sense to replace these store devices with a full mobile self-checkout solution on the customers’ smartphones. This, apart from abolishing waiting lines altogether, makes a big range of additional features and benefits available to the shoppers and the retailers themselves.