Mobile Self Checkout

I had this idea while waiting in line to checkout at the grocery store the other day. It would be nice if there were a mobile application that would allow you to scan your purchases. Then when you get up to the cashier you would just hand them your phone, they would scan a QR code generated by the application and you would pay.

Tags: mobile, startup idea

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Permalink Reply by Lee G Turley on March 31, 2011 at 4:40pm

They would need to make sure you have the items you're saying you do. What's a solution for this?

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on March 31, 2011 at 9:57pm

I've been thinking about that as well after my wife brought that up when I ran the idea by her. Here are my initial thoughts 1) limit the number of items, like express checkout, so the cashier could judge visually, or 2) like Sam's Club have someone separate from the checkout process do a manual verification.

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Permalink Reply by Lee G Turley on April 1, 2011 at 7:08am

What about by weight... just like the self checkout? Have scales in the carts that sinc with the phone app. Is this realistic? I think you're right about the quantity though because their wouldn't be a bagging step... unless the carts had bags on them.

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on April 1, 2011 at 8:08am

That's a good idea. The scale wouldn't necessarily have to be in the cart. It could be in or on the floor beside the checkout. Then as the cashier is loading purchase the system could validate the weight.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Ennis on April 3, 2011 at 5:27pm

The future of this is in RFID. Wal-Mart and Target already use RFID as a form of inventory control. The real missing pieces are RFID recognition within the shopping carts and baskets. If you could create a method on which a basket can be scanned and a total generated in seconds, you have a huge value for everyone involved.

You can also do some very cool things with inventory mapping if your devices can triangulate the products in the basket with the location within the store. You'll have data about shopping patterns that can help stores place merchandise more effectively. You could also then tell customers where products are in a store based on their proximity to it.

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on April 3, 2011 at 8:11pm

I agree. From what I read about RFID it sounds like the ideal solution. I ran across that when I was looking to see if NFC could be a possible solution, and stumbled across it when I realized the maximum distance for NFC is just a few centimeters.

It also appears that several POS companies are working on this, IBM being one. Not that that should be a deterrent, but since integration with the stores POS system will be requirement they will have an easier go at it.

I like your idea about tracking shopping patterns and that could be a completely separate system from the POS system. If they stores are already implementing RFID for checkout purpose we could just piggy back off that.

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on April 4, 2011 at 4:37am

Not sure what I was thinking, but it is going to have to interface with the POS system or the inventory system to get the information associated with the tag.

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Permalink Reply by Ke Qin on April 7, 2011 at 3:36pm

About the scale conversation, I think a weight machine around the produce area will work. you can enter the item & lb in your mobile app before getting to checkout.

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on April 7, 2011 at 3:56pm

That brings up an excellent point. Produce and meat would still have to be weighed and/or scanned.

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Permalink Reply by Phillip Maddox on April 11, 2011 at 8:28pm

IDEO did a very interesting study on this years ago and it was featured on Dateline. (It was done for Dateline actually).

Their concept had a scanner on the cart(s) that allowed patrons to tally their items as they shopped. A process for final checkout was not resolved on this project, but the video is interesting none the less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2PCIcM

-Phillip

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Permalink Reply by Aaric Pittman on April 13, 2011 at 8:55pm

That's cool. In looking at their site they did that study back 1998. See how far we have come in 13 years.

http://www.ideo.com/work/shopping-cart-concept

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Permalink Reply by Lee G Turley on April 13, 2011 at 1:26pm

Just came across this http://www.aislebuyer.com/
Seems to be the same thing, which would be a good validation of market for this as well as a template to follow.