Checkout has long been the bane of in-store shopping experiences, marked by long lines and cumbersome processes that slow the shopper down. Many shoppers have learned to love aspects of the online shopping experience, particularly the purchase moment. Although complicated in its own right, the end of online purchases is often far faster and less rife with frustrations than in-store checkouts. But the vast majority of retail purchases in the US are made in-store, despite a fairly steady rise in eCommerce spending. This is why many retailers are reimagining the in-store experience and focusing on the checkout pain point. 

Sam’s Club has been using Scan & Go for some time, which allows shoppers to use the Sam’s app to scan barcodes as they shop, then produces a QR code for an attendant to scan on your way out. While this solution allowed shoppers to skip the checkout line, it still required active scanning by the shopper. However, the retailer just started rolling out an AI-powered solution that should eliminate receipt-checking when exiting the store.

This technology is still in its early days, and when I tried it for myself I was still stopped by an employee to scan my receipt. But the trajectory appears obvious that the retailer aims to one day eliminate that human touchpoint, which would bring their checkout and store-exit experience at parity with other retailers. Taken a step further, this technology could one day eliminate the need to scan product barcodes in the first place. This could mean a shopper would load their shopping cart and walk out of the store without scanning a single thing – much like customers are able to do today at Amazon stores. 

Several Catapult clients are working on yet-to-be-announced technologies to make shopping and purchase experiences better for customers. We see a potential challenge in disparate experiences existing across retailers, making previously mundane tasks no longer feel like second nature to shoppers. This is why we’re working closely with our clients to devise optimal education and rollout strategies that balance new benefits with acceptable learning curves.

JUSTIN SUTTON

CO-FOUNDER
CATAPULT INSIGHTS

Does the following situation sound familiar – something small or mundane breaks around the house, something you haven’t had to buy in a few years, so you search online for a replacement and you get bombarded by a jungle of products and brands?

Let me paint a picture with my own personal example: I was cooking dinner and my trusty can opener broke, I sighed and resigned myself to buying a replacement before bed. Fast forward to evening and as I was laying in bed and remembered my task; I grabbed my phone and typed in “can opener” and was met with an avalanche of results with each listing attempting to differentiate itself with clever marketing and technologies. An hour passes, nothing has been purchased, and now a feeling of anxiety sets in because every product feels just different enough to warrant consideration. I put my phone down, annoyed, with a new goal of buying a can opener the next day.

TOO MUCH CHOICE

BehaviorScientist.org has a great research review of what they call choice overload – it’s basically what the name implies, too many choices for consumers means a complete breakdown of the purchase process. I remember being in my college marketing class discussing cognitive dissonance and choice paralysis impacting consumers across the globe – 20+ years later and things have only intensified as we enter a matured digital age. Because of a global marketplace where cross-country shipping is, at worst, less than $100 (depending on the item’s weight) and at best, free; there is ample supply of every gadget and doo-dad, every shoe on the planet for you to pick from, and a mountain of rechargeable batteries to peruse. There is so much to pick from today, the time and energy needed to shop even basic items has skyrocketed.

To further illustrate the scale of choice available to us, Harvard Business Review has an article written around the time I was in high school highlighting decision paralysis and how it represents a bad thing for most brands. It details an experiment where there were 2 tables at an upscale food market, one table had 24 different kinds of jam, and on another day, the table would have 6 varieties. People bought something from the 6-variety table MORE than the 24-variety table.

NOT ENOUGH PURCHASING

Hear me out on this one – I believe our lives as consumers would be far more enjoyable if every product search led to a purchase. We could all probably do with less stuff, but that isn’t the point I’m making here, it’s more around the notion that we actually buy what we set out to buy, on the first go.

Decision paralysis is defined as the inability to decide out of fear of making the wrong choice. Most of the time, this is the reason why we don’t buy the first thing that pops up when we search for a product online – what if I buy the wrong product? The New York Times has an article about this as well, they conclude by suggesting that just because we can search endlessly for any given product, doesn’t mean we should.

PARTING THOUGHTS

As market researchers and consultants, Catapult thinks about a lot of things that may not seem relevant in the moment, but we do so to make sure we have an opinion and stance on a given topic when the need arises. Shopping is time consuming and draining in modern times, so to my fellow consumers I say, set a time limit (like researching for 15 mins) and then buy the thing you were looking to buy and be done with it. Of course, the more costly the item, the more time it would take to make a good decision, but don’t fall down that endless researching trap If you feel drained and tired, you probably should just make your decision and move on.

For the brand and product managers in the audience, a similar set of advice could be offered – help consumers make choices by trimming down product lines to minimize choice, being clear with your advertising communications with the key points consumers are looking for to make a decision for purchase, and having those communications be in the right place and time for the consumer. If you want help with any of these things, it just so happens I know some talented researchers and strategists.

Now excuse me – I still have a can opener to buy.

Andre Barroso

DIRECTOR, INSIGHTS & INNOVATION
CATAPULT INSIGHTS