S1 Ep 1
Scan and go – convenience or accuracy?
San and go - where next?
On this episode, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Adrian Beck to discuss how retailers are innovating with Scan and Go technology.
How can retailers reduce errors, improve accuracy and ultimately reduce loss when shoppers use their own devices to scan and pay for their groceries.
Podcast summary
Scan and Go was the focus of a checkout working group session on bring your own device, looking at how retailers control risk when customers scan on their own phones and leave with varying levels of checking.
Colin and Professor Adrian Beck share snapshot survey results showing very low customer usage, alongside concerns about audits, tag deactivation, and how mobile scanning blurs the line between shopping and theft prevention in-store.
They reflect on why some retailers still offer the option despite the compromises it can create for existing controls, and what might change as checkout innovation continues.
Cleaned transcript
Bring your own device scan and go session recap
COLIN:
Morning Adrian, yep, very well, thank you.
We had a session last week on scan and go as part of the checkout working group. It was very well attended — over 60 joined us.
You started off with a snapshot survey. You’d done a survey of some retailers before the meeting and shared those results.
Then we had a retailer sharing their journey, and other retailers sharing where they’d got to in terms of how you control scan and go when you have the proposition around bring your own device, which is different to a store-supplied device.
We were really focused on bring your own device — you or me taking our smartphone, going and scanning, and then walking out, sometimes being checked, sometimes not being checked.
What were your takeaways, your thoughts and reflections on the meeting?
Snapshot survey: who uses scan and go and how much
ADRIAN:
Yes, thanks Colin. I really enjoyed this session and learned a lot. There was a lot of content that was really interesting in how this technology is being used.
The reason we did the snapshot survey was to get a sense of where people are around some key issues. We ended up getting 45 companies to respond, which was great, of which 23 were using mobile SCO. It was that group of 23 that shared their experiences.
We asked what percentage of transactions in the stores where this is available actually goes through mobile SCO/scan and go — how many people are using this technology.
Remarkably few. Of those that responded, 74% said it was 3% or less of all transactions going through this technology. So a tiny proportion of transactions are currently going through it.
We also heard about how you get people to register. It varied a lot around whether you got people to register their payments beforehand or not.
Controls and risk in scan and go: audits and EAS tags
ADRIAN:
Of course, one of the issues around this is how you try and get control of the people using it. How do you get the audit system that we’re familiar with when a retailer provides the scan device?
We heard from retailers about the extent to which they had audits in place. While most had, there was a fair proportion that had no audit facility in place. That was extraordinary.
We also asked about one of the other thorny issues: if you’re using some form of EAS tagging technologies, how does that interact with this when you’re giving people so much freedom to walk around the store and scan?
Again, we had a really mixed picture around how retailers were dealing with deactivation of tags — where does it happen, how do you do it. Quite a few said, “We don’t do it. We just let people walk out.” If it’s a soft tag, they just walk out, and there’s no means of trying to manage these issues.
It’s a big challenge in terms of existing product control and how that interacts with this technology.
Finally, we asked how this technology compares in terms of risk to other forms of SCO. 45% said it generated a higher level of risk than other forms, with another 46% saying it’s about the same, and relatively few saying it’s lower.
So there’s real concern about the risk associated with this technology.
Frictionless retail: why retailers like Scan and Go
COLIN:
Yeah, it’s extraordinary. Not many people are using it, it’s high risk. Why are the retailers carrying on? I don’t understand it.
ADRIAN:
It is interesting. I reflected on this because we heard from a number of retailers about how they were using it, and the issues around trying to get control over this.
For me, it spoke to the power of “frictionless” — this desire by some retailers to offer consumers many different ways to check out in stores. This sense that we’ve got to give them choice, and one choice is to give them this mobile technology, even though virtually nobody wants to use it.
One of the problems is it blurs the boundaries for those responsible for controlling loss in retail stores. Security guards are looking out for people who are stealing, trying to find shoplifters and shop thieves. This makes it even more blurry, because you could have somebody walking around with a phone in their hand scanning items, or pretending to scan items.
How do you know whether this is a thief or not? How do you know they’ve scanned all the items they’re claiming are in their bags?
The other thing that struck me is: to make this technology work, you have to compromise a lot of your existing controls.
We’ve seen the debate around tags. One approach is to say, “We’ve just got to take all the tags off now to make mobile SCO work because we don’t know how to deactivate them.” You’ve got less than 3% of customers using it, but you’ve decided to take all your tags off so that this tiny proportion can use it.
Trying to make sure you’ve got controls in place — how do you make audits work — feels like a lot of technologically based distraction for people working in these stores. You’re spending time trying to get a technology to work, while it gives you inflated levels of risk for less than 3% of transactions.
I walked away thinking: why do retailers keep bothering with this technology when so few people are using it, it exposes you to what most are saying is high risk, and you’re having to compromise on lots of your existing controls that we know are doing a fairly good job.
COLIN:
One pushback might be that the devices they supply probably go missing, and they’re expensive to maintain and upkeep. So it’s attractive to get people to use their own phones to scan, and you don’t have to buy that inventory of handheld devices.
But we did hear from one retailer who offers both. They offer the device and you can use your own, and it was less than 10% of the scan and go transactions going through bring your own device. Most used the store-supplied device, which was perhaps designed and fit for purpose.
Scan and Go v Customers using their own mobile phones
ADRIAN:
In 2016 I did a study where we looked specifically at mobile SCO and the issues as to why people typically don’t want to use it.
There are lots of challenges. A device provided by a retailer uses infrared to scan barcodes — it’s accurate. If you’re using your camera on your phone, you’ve got to get the lighting right, the distance right, and packaging can influence the quality of the scanning.
We also had what we called the “three hand syndrome”: you’re holding your phone in one hand and your basket in the other — how do you pick the product up?
There’s a challenge in the mechanics of using your mobile phone in a shop.
COLIN:
Yeah, that’s what someone had — lanyards. One company tried lanyards.
ADRIAN:
They got concerned about lanyards because if the lanyard breaks, who’s liable for the loss if you break your phone whilst you’re scanning?
Or people make little cradles to put your phone into their trolleys, and then the concern is: do you want your thousand-pound Apple phone sat in a trolley while you’re wandering off to get products?
There are lots of mechanical issues in how this works.
If you’re buying one or two items, like the lunchtime trade, it probably is useful. But once you go beyond that, there are technical issues that still make it a technology where relatively few customers are interested at this stage.
What comes next for Scan and Go innovation
COLIN:
It was interesting on the call. There were some retailers still in the camp of trying to get it to work, some who’ve gone back and come back in.
We had a couple of others that said they’re going to do a whole store that’s smart, and another retailer saying they’re trying shopping carts that are smart.
ADRIAN:
It’s part of this broad innovation around transformation. There’s constant change around what SCO looks like in retail stores, and this has certainly been part of it.
For me, the call was illuminating in how few people are using it — it’s the first time we’ve had a snapshot survey that gave us those numbers — and the amount of compromise and challenge to make it work well.
Retail is all about innovation, trying out new things all the time. But how many technologies stand the test of time when so few customers actually use it? I struggle to think of another one.
COLIN:
We spoke earlier about face recognition. We had a session on that.
We know for sure in 2025 there’ll be a constant conversation around face recognition — maybe more retailers would be using it, certainly in the UK and a few other markets.
But on scan and go using your mobile device, I will put a meeting on this time next year. I don’t know how big the interest will be, but maybe I have to broaden it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your notes and your thoughts. Certainly we will enjoy this time next year and seeing where it’s got to on scan and go. Thank you.
