A supermarket in London is now testing an app that allows smartphone users to scan to buy.
London supermarket, Sainsbury’s, has announced that it is testing a new mobile commerce strategy that will allow customers with smartphones to scan QR codes in order to pay for their purchases, without ever having to unload their shopping carts at the checkout counter.
The pilot program is being tested in four of the shop’s locations.
The program, which is based on the Scan ‘n’ Go app, is now undergoing a trial run at the central London locations of Tadley (near Reading) Clerkenwell Local (in London) and Bethnal Green (in London)
Users can bag their groceries as they walk through the store, using the app as they go.
This means that as the products are taken from the shelves, users can scan the barcodes with the app or shelf edge labelling, and then they can be placed directly into shopping bags. Once the customer is through selecting all of the items that he or she would like to purchase, the next step is a self checkout counter. There, the groceries can remain in the cart, and the smartphone is used to complete the purchase through the information that was collected with the barcode scans.
This innovative new mobile commerce program is also designed to help provide customers with directions around the store based on the items that they have pre-entered into their shopping lists. For consumers who have already made up their list of items before entering the store, they can save a great deal of time by having their route mapped for them. This will not only help to increase the organized way in which they shop, but it will also help to avoid missed items that will require either a trip back across the store, or a trip back to the store if the item was not remembered in time.
The program is quite simple to use. The customer logs into the program by scanning QR codes upon arrival. From there, they can scan barcodes on the shelf next to the price information for an item, or located directly on the product.
Loose items, such as produce, which must be weighted on scales, will have QR codes printed once they have been weighed, and this can then be scanned by the smartphone and added to the tally.
*Note: The QR codes can be found and scanned at the front entrance in the above mentioned stores.