Global study on self-checkout in retail – KEY FACTS

• Self-checkout now processes most transactions across grocery retail worldwide
• Self-checkout contributes up to 23% of total unknown retail losses
• Two-thirds of retailers say self-checkout losses are increasing
• Each shift toward self-checkout increases loss as a share of sales
• Product weight checks remain the most effective self-checkout loss control
• Retailers increasingly invest in analytics-driven controls for self-checkout losses

Self-checkout now dominates grocery retail

Self-checkout is no longer a niche technology. 96% of grocery retailers in the survey use fixed self-checkout, compared with 77% of non-grocery retailers.

Adoption has accelerated rapidly over the past decade.

In some supermarket formats, retailers report that up to 80% of all customer transactions now pass through self-checkout systems. This is why self-checkout has become central to both customer experience and retail loss.

Self-checkout drives up to 23% of unknown store losses

Retailers estimate that self-checkout systems account for as much as 23% of total unknown store losses.

Almost half of these losses (48%) are believed to be malicious rather than accidental.

This finding challenges the assumption that most self-checkout losses are honest mistakes. For many retailers, self-checkout is now a major source of deliberate loss.

Two-thirds of retailers say self-checkout losses are getting worse

Concern is rising fast. 66% of retailers surveyed believe that losses linked to self-checkout are becoming more of a problem in their business.

Despite years of experience and investment, many retailers feel that loss risks are growing alongside self-checkout usage, rather than stabilising.

Every shift to self-checkout brings a measurable loss increase

The report identifies a clear relationship between usage and loss. For every 1% of retail sales processed through fixed self-checkout, unknown loss increases by 1 basis point.

If 50% of sales move through self-checkout, this equates to an additional 0.5% loss of total sales. That’s a 30% increase for a typical grocery retailer.

Losses linked to Scan & Go and mobile systems may rise even faster.

Weight checks remain the most effective loss control

Among all interventions studied, product weight checking is both the most widely deployed and most effective method for controlling self-checkout losses.

Retailers also rate better selection and training of self-checkout supervisors as one of the most impactful controls, reinforcing the importance of people alongside technology.

Retailers are moving toward analytics-led controls

Future investment is shifting away from manual checks toward analytics-driven controls. Retailers report growing interest in technologies that detect:

• non-scanning,
• product recognition errors,
• barcode switching,
• and exit validation failures.

This reflects a broader move toward automated, scalable loss prevention as self-checkout continues to grow.

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