Survey results show shopper frustration with self-service checkouts

Bay Shore, N.Y. - One-in-three shoppers have walked out of a store without buying the goods they intended to because of a bad experience with a self-service checkout, according to a new survey from queue management company Tensator. With 84% of respondents admitting to needing staff assistance when using a self-service, nearly 60% of customers actually prefer using more traditional staffed checkouts, the company said.



Other survey findings include:

• Over 40% of respondents cited technical glitches as the most annoying aspect of self-service checkout.

• More than half of the shoppers questioned believe that the transaction time at self-service tills is actually slower than manned checkouts.

• Over 50% of consumers complained that they weren’t sure where the queue started at self-service payment points.

“This research makes very interesting reading against the backdrop of growing online retail sales, where queuing and the checkout experience is so different,” said Cathy Barnes, professor of retail innovation at Leeds Metropolitan University. “Shops need to pay increasing attention to the experience they provide in store to ensure they do not drive consumers away to competitors or other channels. The results show that there is significant dissatisfaction with both queuing and current self-service till systems and there is a real opportunity for innovation in this area.”