Scan & go: A customer’s dream?

Today’s shoppers want easier ways to pay that go beyond cash or cards. Are cashier-less payment methods a faddish trend or a key innovation for the future of the forecourt? The rise of scan & go technology in the fuel retail environment points to the latter.

Last month Repsol announced the launch of a new cashier-less payment method that would allow users to scan products with their smartphones, pay automatically through the app and get on with their journey. With the rolling out of this solution, the Spanish oil company became one of the first fuel retailers in Europe to introduce scan & go technology - a retail innovation that eliminates the need for cashiers. Scan, pay and leave. No more waiting in line at the checkout counter.

When discussing the future of the forecourt, experts agree that it is customers rather than technology that will determine if retailers’ succeed in and outside the canopy. What do customers desire? But most importantly, how could technology work as an enabler to satisfy those needs? A survey revealed that 21 percent of people walking into a store are not keen on standing in line at the cash register once they have grabbed a product. Today’s shoppers want seamless payment methods that go beyond cash or card. With some forecourts retailers already embracing cryptocurrencies as an alternative payment solution - such as Sheetz and Circle K, which recently installed bitcoins ATMs at their stores in USA -, it is clear that fuel retailers of the future will have to pay close attention to self-serve e-commerce inspired payment process that avoid queuing up at the counter.

Numerous advantages, endless possibilities

Using new seamless features for purchasing goods, however, it is not only in the interest of customers who want to get in and out of the store within minutes. For retailers it is a chance to collect vast amounts of data that can be stored and analysed in real time to offer tailored solutions according to the customer’s preference. Shoppers can in return enjoy value-added services in the form of product information, points-earning, personalised offers, product suggestions or couponing, to name a few interesting advantages. The digitalisation of the customer journey is being built upon the challenge to develop personal experiences on a mass scale.

Since 2017, the Waylet application, through which Repsol’s scan & go solution Way&Go works, allows their customers to pay with their mobile phone at any of Repsol's service stations and partner stores. This app has more than one million registered users and 3,500 associated stores to date. Although the latest update to introduce scan & go technology marks a milestone on seamless payment methods within the European fuel retailer industry, mobile checkout solutions were tested before in various supermarkets chains and convenience stores around the world.

The Netherlands, in particular, is among the markets that led the development of this technology with supermarket chains like Jumbo, Albert Heijn or Dirk already using unique scan & go features in some of their flagship stores. In the United States, Walmart is now testing its own new scan & go app, which uses artificial intelligence to recognise products.

Just as self-checkout machines could be more efficient than waiting in line for a cashier to go through your products and payment, scan & go technologies are set to be the next logical step in streamlining and improving in-store experience for both customers and operators. In the early 1980s, barcode technology transformed the retail industry for good. Will scan & go solutions become one of the major disruptors in the forecourt sector? It’s in the hands of retailers to take frictionless shopping to the next level.