3 Reasons Your Checkout Process Is Losing You Customers

Is your checkout process making your customers walk out the door?

Today’s shoppers are spoilt for choice when it comes to the vast selection of products that are available to them, and which retailer they purchase from. Then, there’s the matter of how they make their purchase: online or in-store. 

While huge online retailers like Amazon offer incentives like same-day shipping, online retailers can’t offer something that brick-and-mortar stores still can: instant purchase gratification. Brick-and-mortar stores must capitalize on this because when online retailers don’t offer next-day or free shipping, many shoppers will visit a physical store so they can complete their purchase immediately. 

But in so many instances, when a shopper comes to a brick-and-mortar store, retailers lose them due to a checkout process that is less than desirable and leaves shoppers pining for the efficiency of online checkouts. MishiPay was founded as an answer to this problem; our technology was created after Mustafa Khanwala, our Founder and CEO, had to wait in a queue for 20 minutes to buy a can of soda.

So how can retailers make sure to keep customers in-store? First, you must identify if your checkout process is losing you sales, and why. 

1. You don’t have enough staff for peak periods

In many cases, when customers are making a purchase, particularly for high-value items, they want to speak to a knowledgeable member of staff who can offer expert advice and help them make an informed decision. One way that many retailers fall short is by not ensuring that there are enough staff on the floor to support customer demands. Many shoppers can tell stories of abandoning a shopping excursion because there was simply nobody there to help them.

A lack of staff could also lead to a lack of open tills, meaning that customers are forced to wait for longer to pay than they feel is acceptable. All shoppers will have different expectations, but for a retailer to expect a customer to wait more than 5-6 minutes to pay is likely to be considered unreasonable by the majority of shoppers, and the data backs this up: long lines lead to £284bn in initially abandoned sales annually. What if you could give customers a till-less option?

2. You don’t have self-checkout options 

Self-checkout points were introduced originally in the 1990’s, but they have continually been developed over recent years. Only within the last ten years have they been commonplace within retail stores. Today, even small convenience-sized stores in train stations often have a self-checkout till. However, for all of the fluidity self-checkout tills offer, the drawbacks are similar to a traditional kiosk in the sense that shoppers are still forced to queue and wait to use the kiosks and they take up considerable floorspace. See how scan and go technology can utilize floor staff and floorspace more efficiently and cut out the queuing entirely.

3. Your current solutions don’t offer personalisation

If customers are keen on a quick and painless shopping excursion, the other thing they’re after is an experience. Today’s customers want to feel that they are encountering something more when they make an in-store purchase. In a recent study, it was found that 80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a company that offers personalized experiences. Retail technology like scan and go solutions provide this extra level of personalisation through offering or upselling additional items based on the items the shopper uses the app to scan, and what they have purchased in the past.

After all, if a shopper is going to make the trip into a brick-and-mortar store and enter the brand’s world over the convenience of purchasing online from the comfort of their own home, there should be something to make the experience memorable. A swift and reliable checkout solution will not only pique customer interest but can also help prevent you from losing their business. A mobile self-checkout app, like MishiPay, ensures that your checkout process is modern, seamless and without glitches and is one of the best ways to ensure that you don’t lose your customers. What else do shoppers want from retail?