Finnish retailer S-Group is expanding its collect and scan service to 25 Prisma stores during 2022, adding to the four that provided the service in its pilot phase.
The service allows customers to collect their purchases directly in shopping bags and scan them as they go around the store.
With collect and scan, transactions at the checkout are smoother as purchases are not separately scanned at the checkout and packed from the shopping cart into the bag.
Prisma Pilot
One of the first stores to join the service pilot was Prisma Keljo in Jyväskylä.
Since November 2019, handheld scanners and instructions for using the service have been placed near the store entrance, the retailer noted.
Staff members guide customers through registration and use of the device.
The customer uses a handheld scanner to scan their purchases as they collect them in the shopping bag.
The store also offers a return point for handheld scanners at the cash registers.
Upon return, a receipt is printed and the payment is made at the checkout.
'Different Ways Of Doing Business'
S-Group development manager, Riikka Thilman, commented, "We want to offer our customers a variety of ways to shop: online, instant checkout, traditional checkout and collect and scan are all part of a package, [so] that everyone can find the right way to shop.
"Self-service checkouts are very popular in countries such as Sweden, Norway and Estonia. In some of these countries, up to half of customers scan their purchases as they collect them. We tested the service for two years and based on the positive feedback we received, we decided to expand it."
Shoppers can avail of the service by scanning an S-Etuk card in a reader installed at the entrance of the store.
After the user accepts the terms of use for the first time, the device releases the hand scanner. For subsequent uses, it is enough to simply flash the card.
Prisma director, Tommi Viitanen Osuuskauppa Keskimaa, said, "We have received a lot of praise from customers for the collect and scan service. It is especially used by customers who travel with shopping carts and buy a lot at a time, who can conveniently pack their products in shopping bags they have already placed in their shopping carts.
"At the checkout, one step is left out when the goods do not have to be unloaded and repacked separately. Positive feedback emphasises ease, speed, and how the staff will assist in using the new service. The service has been so popular in Prisma Keljo that we now bring it to Prisma Palokka and later in the spring also to Prisma Seppälä."
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
