Sainsbury’s is launching a new in-store digital innovation with a contactless, checkout-free way to shop.
SmartShop Pick & Go is using Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.
The technology is in use in Sainsbury’s convenience store at Holborn Circus. It is the latest example of Sainsbury’s strategy to use innovative technology to make shopping convenient for customers and builds on recent successful digital initiatives such as My Nectar Prices, Same Day Home Delivery and Click & Collect and the further rollout of tech-based On Demand service Chop Chop.
To enter the store, customers scan a QR code using their SmartShop app which is linked to a credit or debit card. Just Walk Out technology automatically adds anything the customer takes off the shelf to their virtual cart and removes anything they put back on the shelf. The customer leaves the store by scanning the QR code to exit through the store’s automatic gates. Their linked card will be charged for the items they pick and customers will receive a receipt via email when they have left the store.
Just Walk Out technology provides shoppers with a fast, efficient, and seamless way to shop and is currently in dozens of Amazon Go stores, select Amazon Fresh stores, and other third-party retailers in the U.S.
Customer demand for contactless ways to shop in stores has increased, especially since the start of the pandemic. SmartShop is available in around 1,400 Sainsbury’s stores, with sales up 173% versus last year. In supermarkets with SmartShop handsets, 30% of sales are now generated through the app, more than twice the level of last year and SmartShop Mobile Pay is available in nearly all convenience stores.
