A New App Lets Supermarkets Get in on the Trend Toward E-Commerce in the Store

Few consumers like waiting in lines to pay, especially at grocery stores. One California grocery chain is taking steps to make it easier for shoppers pay for their purchases with the launch of a self-checkout app.

The California Fresh Market location in San Luis Opisbo, Calif., is using Future Proof Retail LLC’s app for iOS and Android devices. The app enables consumers to scan items, including produce, as they shop and then pay as they leave the store.

The app, with access to the smart phone’s camera, scans the quick-response barcodes on items. For produce, the consumer enters the item’s code and places the produce on a scale that generates a barcode containing the weight information for the consumer to scan.

At the front of the store, near the standard checkout lanes, the consumer scans another bar code that verifies the customer is ready to checkout. To pay, the customer can use a payment card they entered into the app or Apple Pay if they have an iPhone. Alcohol purchases still require an age-verification check and the store verifies a percentage of checkouts against theft. Each sale produces a digital receipt for the consumer.

Creating an account in the app requires only an email address and photo, William Hogben, Future Proof chief executive, tells Digital Transactions News. The app integrates into the store’s point-of-sale system to ensure accurate inventory tracking and transaction information, he says.

California Fresh Market is using Braintree, a unit of PayPal Holdings Inc., for credit and debit card transactions, but Apple Pay transactions go through Apple’s processing network, Hogben says.

At California Fresh Market, early results find the average ticket for purchases made with the app to be identical—at $27—to those made in a checkout lane, Hogben says. Large orders don’t seem to be a deterrent. Purchases with more than 80 items have been made using the app, he says. As it turns out, consumers who are keen to use the app use it for every size of purchase, he adds.

For merchants, it’s another way to offer a convenient payment method, and for consumers, it means no more waiting in long checkout lines, Hogben says. “We’re bringing the benefit of e-commerce to the in-store setting,” he adds. “The shopping experience is better because you have total control over the length of your shopping experience.”

Retailers, especially smaller ones, have taken interest in apps like Future Proof’s because it mirrors the e-commerce experience, Hogben says. Consumers are used to getting notifications about recommended products and having a personalized experience, he says. Merchants using the Future Proof app can present offers within the app.

Additionally, smaller grocers compete against large chains and new entrants, including ones with considerable digital expertise. Amazon.com Inc., for example, is thought to be planning to open physical grocery stores in the next few years, reports BusinessInsider.com.

And Sam’s Club, a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., launched its Scan & Go app nationwide in October. This app, too, enables consumers to skip checkout lanes. “Members simply scan and pay for merchandise from anywhere inside the club and show the digital receipt to an associate at the exit door,” a Sam’s Club spokesperson says. Walmart is testing the technology on a very limited scale, she says, but there are no immediate plans to make it available at Walmart U.S. locations.