"Payment is becoming more diverse, more digital and, above all, more mobile." This is the result of a representative study for which VR Payment and the EHI Retail Institute surveyed consumers and retailers. According to the study, the smartphone will play a central role in the shopping journey in the future and will become a "smart tool". But what exactly will the digital future of retail look like? Both retailers and consumers assume that the classic cash register will be phased out in the future.
The checkout can severely disrupt the shopping experience, for example when customers have to queue. The 30 to 44 year olds in particular find waiting in line exhausting. Young consumers are more likely than average to do this in clothing stores; the 45 to 59 year olds in discounters, hardware stores and shoe stores. Higher earners find queuing unpleasant in shops in all retail segments. In general, convenience and self-determination for consumers are determining factors for the checkout process in the store. The design of the checkout area and the product display, on the other hand, do not play a decisive role in the evaluation.
Consumers see the business of the future without a checkout. The shopping process and the checkout are going digital! Payment is automated and trading is more mobile. Men and higher earners express this expectation more often than average. The majority of those surveyed said they would be willing to shop in cashless shops, perhaps even with an automated checkout. The main motivation for this is not having to wait at a checkout, being able to process the purchase more quickly and setting the pace yourself.
In general, consumers want a cashless checkout as an additional option in the store. Only a fifth would like completely cashless stores.
Today, the smartphone is a constant companion and digital helper in everyday life. Use in shops is also becoming increasingly popular, with 18 to 29 year olds in particular integrating their smartphones into the entire shopping process in retail and thus using the digital checkout. Half of all those surveyed already use their smartphones in a variety of ways: to collect points with a digital customer card, to manage shopping lists, to save the receipt digitally or for mobile payment.
Single parents in particular also see added value in receiving offers from nearby shops via their smartphone. In this group, the willingness to identify oneself when entering and leaving the store in order to get through the checkout faster is particularly high at 36 percent. Overall, a fifth of the respondents were willing to do so. Almost 30 percent would like to pay at the POS with mobile devices in the future. A look at the demographic influencing factors shows that the affinity for mobile payment options increases with the level of income.
For retailers, resource-efficient processing (96%) and high throughput (92%) are particularly important for the checkout area. Optimized purchasing processes are therefore central to the evaluation of cash register replacement systems. Two thirds of the retailers surveyed are interested or even very interested in new solutions. Mobile payment options also have a lot of potential – especially with regard to the merging of online and offline channels.
Of secondary importance for retailers is the option of using the smartphone for additional products and services in addition to paying, for example to make offers to customers or to get to know them better.
1,000 consumers were surveyed as part of a representative study and around 50 retailers from various sectors from the group of the top 250 chain stores in Germany. Executives from the areas of full-range food suppliers and discounters, textile trade, shoe retail, DIY stores, department stores as well as furniture and drugstores took part.