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Ahold Delhaize Eyes Expansion of Frictionless Checkout
Mobile scan lanes to reach 30 stores by year-end. A proprietary scanning and payment application allowing shoppers to check out with a swipe of their phone will be in 30 stores by year-end.
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A proprietary scanning and payment application allowing shoppers to check out with a swipe of their phone will be in 30 stores by year-end.Photograph by WGB Staff
Ahold Delhaize USA’s Retail Business Services unit said this week that it would expand a proprietary frictionless checkout program to 30 stores by year-end.
The ScanIt Mobile program allows shoppers to pay by scanning a code at checkout with their smartphones. The technology is currently available in Ahold Delhaize’s Giant Heirloom stores and some Stop & Shop stores.
“At Retail Business Services, we’re focused on creating the next generation of grocery retail,” said Paul Scorza, EVP of information technology and chief innovation officer for Retail Business Services. “A key part of this is developing new technologies that support consumers’ changing preferences for how they want to shop. For consumers who want to skip the checkout line and pay with their smartphones, we’re excited to see the use of our in-store frictionless solution continue to grow. At the same time, we continue to evaluate ways to open up new possibilities for the future.”
Scorza told WGB in an interview earlier this year that the implementation of frictionless checkout was only awaiting installation of specialized checkout lanes in-stores and not the underlying technology. The system was created in Retail Business Services' Quincy, Mass.-based tech lab, which is at work on additional frictionless shopping technologies.
For stores that feature frictionless payment technology, two shopping options are available:
For customers shopping with a mobile device, a wallet and payment option is incorporated into Retail Business Services’ ScanIt Mobile application. A customer shops the store, scanning product barcodes with their mobile phone. At the completion of the shop, the customer simply exits the store through a designated checkout lane, a “payment approved” message appears as the customer walks through and the customer is charged for purchases.
A customer can also use a ScanIt Mobile handheld device available for pickup at the front of stores. The customer uses the scanning device to shop and can transfer the session over to a smartphone for a frictionless checkout. In the same way as a customer scanning with a mobile phone does, a customer utilizing a handheld scanning device transfers the session to a mobile phone and exits the store through a designated checkout lane.
Services such as PayPal, Venmo, Apply Pay and Google Pay are also integrated into the wallet, enabling the customer to link information from popular payment platforms.
