UK retailer Tesco has begun to trial a checkout-free, app-based mobile payment system, which will allow consumers to scan products while they walk around stores and pay online.
Consumers can use the smartphone app to scan the barcodes of products that they desire, and then pay for them without needing to visit a till.
This new system is currently on trial at the retailer’s Tesco Express store located next to the company’s Welwyn Garden City headquarters, one of the company’s cashless shops.
Tesco’s trial could pave the way for more cashless stores in the future, and a statement from the company claimed that waiting times at the store has been cut to 45 seconds, compared to 90 seconds at similarly-sized stores.
Steven Blair, Tesco’s convenience transformation director said: “Using your mobile device you select some products, put them into your basket on your device and then just walk out of the store.
“The feedback is very good, but it’s super early.”
The system is similar to the Amazon Go checkout-free store in Seattle, which was opened by Amazon in January.
The Amazon Go store uses cameras and sensors to track the products that consumers pick up, before charging their Amazon account once they leave the store.
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