IDG Contributor Network: Self-checkout: What shoppers want to do is rarely what they end up doing

One of the first things retail executives learn is that shopper surveys are horrible indicators of what shoppers will do in stores. Asked if they would make purchases at a breached retailer, they’ll routinely say no. But quarterly earnings betray the truth that being breached has just about zero influence on revenue. (Blame zero liability, but that’s a column for another day.)

The issue for today is self-checkout. Surveys show that shoppers love the idea. Retailer experience shows that shoppers don’t love self-checkout the reality nearly as much as they love self-checkout the concept. Reality messes things up, with fruits and vegetables that need weighing and age-restricted products and long lines and filled-to-the-brim shopping carts that were never supposed to be handled at self-checkout. Shoppers are quick to dismiss the value of an associate at a staffed checkout lane, ignoring the fact that their experience of scanning millions of SKUs makes them awfully good at it and impressively fast.

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