Shaping the Checkout Experience: How Consumer Perception is Influencing Retail

S1E5 Revolutionizing the Checkout: How Choice Impacts Purchase Behavior

Mar 10, 2025

Delivering a great customer experience is a challenge every retailer faces. We’re surfacing valuable insights from real world industry data, slicing through measurable consumer insights based on 1st party research and research at the point of sale. Join us as we learn the impact of one data insight each issue! Stay sharp!

Shaping the Checkout Experience: The Power of Consumer Perception

Welcome to another engaging edition of the Retail Razor: Data Blades, where we examine real-world numbers and slice through measurable consumer insights based on point-of-sale research. In today’s discussion, we explore the critical topic of consumer perception of self-checkout and its essential role during the checkout experience. Leading us through this insightful journey is Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating, who joins our hosts, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden,

TruRating empowers retailers by allowing them to hear directly from validated shoppers daily. Recently, they reached a significant milestone of nearly a billion responses from an impressive 80 percent response rate to questions asked at the point-of-sale. Thanks to these responses, Georgina was able to provide insights into the impact of choosing self-checkout on transaction values.

Self-Checkout Preferences

Georgina shared findings from a recent survey involving over 14,000 customers in the US, UK, and Australia, revealing how consumer preferences vary significantly across retail segments.

In convenience stores, customers generally favor self-checkout for its speed and ease.

However, in the apparel segment, only 29 percent of customers prefer self-checkout, valuing the consulting role of store associates.

Interestingly, the data suggests a threshold at which consumer preferences shift: when a basket contains more than three items, shoppers tend to prefer manned cashier stations. Challenges with the ease of self-checkout were reported by one in five customers, highlighting an area for potential improvement.

The Financial Implications

Perception is critical!

When customers feel cornered into using self-checkout, their spending decreases by an average of 29 percent.

This significant figure highlights the necessity for retailers to maintain a balanced offering of checkout options to prevent a drop in average transaction spend.

Personal experiences shared by both hosts illustrated instances where shoppers opt to purchase fewer items if self-checkout is the only option.

black and white printed textile — Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Insights Drive Change

Georgina emphasized the importance of continuous feedback: rapid innovation in retail technology and consumer behavior necessitates up-to-date customer sentiment data.

Retailers can no longer make decisions in the dark. By asking questions and analyzing contextual purchases, businesses can make informed technology and operational decisions to enhance the consumer experience.

Towards an Assisted Checkout

A practical strategy favored by some retailers like Costco is having staff members available near the self-checkout areas to assist when issues arise. This maintains some level of human interaction while still benefiting from the efficiencies of self-checkout systems.

This is an example of how asking a series of questions and analyzing contextual data allows retailers to tailor their approaches to sole a challenge.

For home improvement stores, for example, understanding when and why self-checkout leads to poor experiences can prompt changes that significantly enhance customer satisfaction.

Final Thoughts

Georgina’s insights underscore the importance of choice at the point of sale. As we conclude another illuminating session of the Retail Razor: Data Blades, remember that real-time feedback can shape retail strategies that align with evolving consumer expectations!

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Follow along with a full episode transcript available below:

Full Episode Transcript

S1E5 Shaping the Checkout Experience: The Power of Consumer Perception

Show Intro

[00:00:00]

Ricardo Belmar: Welcome to our new Retail Razor Show, Data Blades, our new standalone Retail Razor Show, where we talk real world numbers and slice through measurable consumer insights based on research at the point of sale.

And bringing us that slicing and dicing of data is Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating.

Casey Golden: TruRating helps retailers hear directly from validated shoppers daily, and recently had a major milestone of half a billion responses. Retailers using TruRating average an 80 percent response rate on questions asked, made possible by asking a single rotating question directly on the POS pinpad. Making it a seamless part of the shopper's checkout experience.

Ricardo Belmar: TruRating also works with their retail partners to develop consumer insights reports by running questions on an industry topic or theme. These anonymous responses are linked to metrics such as [00:01:00] basket size and repeat visits to produce industry changing insights like the ones Georgina will share with us today and raise our data blades.

I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.

Casey Golden: And I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.

Georgina Nelson - Perception of Choice is Essential During the Checkout Experience

Casey Golden: Welcome Georgina.

Georgina Nelson: Thank you, it's good to be here today.

Casey Golden: So today's Retail Razor Data Blades topic is all about how 'the perception of choice is essential during the checkout experience.' Please do tell us more Georgina.

Georgina Nelson: So, earlier this year we asked over 14, 000 customers across the US, UK and Australia what their views were of self checkout as they shopped across a variety of stores. And it was really interesting, basically appetite for self checkout versus manned tills seem to really be affected and be impacted by what sector you're shopping in.

So in the convenience sector, customers generally prefer to self checkout. Obviously the convenience and the speed being king. But in apparel, where a [00:02:00] consultative sale within a store associate is more likely. That fell to only 29 percent of customers saying they'd ever prefer self checkout. And as speed was clearly key, it's interesting to look at the number of products which were in the basket. Ultimately, there seems to be a threshold of if there are more than three items in the basket, consumers will look for that manned till. And... Interestingly, in this step, which I'm sure we can all sympathize with, one in five customers report facing challenges with the ease of self-checkout

Casey Golden: Oh, there's Ricardo.

Ricardo Belmar: That's me. I'm that one

Georgina Nelson: ha, ha. What, what we also found, which, again, I think is, is really interesting, is the option of whether there is a manned till or self checkout is really key.

When customers perceive that self checkout is their only path. They end up spending 29 percent less. [00:03:00] So, basically, if you feel that you're being forced to use self checkout, your shopping patterns actually change, and, when, while that looks such a, such a big number, when I think to my own experience, if I can see it's only self checkout, I'll just leave buying that bottle of wine to when I walk past the office later on.

I cannot be bothered to, yeah, for the bell to ring, wait for a store associate who doesn't obviously believe that I am under 21, I mean, who would? ha, ha, ha, and yeah. And so, I think retailers recognizing that investing in that choice is key to ensure that there is no dip in that average transaction spend.

Ricardo Belmar: Well, as we were joking about, I think I can definitely attest to that because I immediately thought to, my, one of my, I would say probably least favorite self checkout experiences are at home improvement stores, which seems to be the trend now that they almost exclusively want you to use self checkout and [00:04:00] very rarely have anyone manning a checkout area unless it's for returns or some other customer service area.

And, and I think that does factor in because I'll usually decide, well, if fine, that's okay, because I'm only going to buy one or two things anyway. And so I'm only going to carry those one or two things. No matter how awkward those items may be, which they often are at a home improvement store, I'll figure out how to get through the self checkout and hopefully not, cause all the alarms to go off and we'll have to wait for someone to come and fix it because it wouldn't scan the item.

But yeah, that I, I would definitely feel as a consumer that I'm not likely to buy a lot of things knowing that I have to go through that self checkout.

Casey Golden: Also too, I think I use self checkout when I'm only buying a couple things in general period. So like it might also, there's, who knows like that, that could definitely skew the data at a home improvement. I'm not going to go through a, buy a whole bunch of lumber and a whole bunch of things.

And then go through self checkout. I'm not lifting all that stuff. You just put it in your cart. [00:05:00] Or heavier products, right? So, you, there has to be a mix of both. I don't think that we can go 100 percent one way. It does change perception. I kind of, I don't like the idea of it. So it's just kind of like, the brand's no longer relating to my DNA. Cause they're now doing rolling something out that I don't believe in, but at the same time being able to get this information from the customers, like essentially real time, I, I see that it would be much more beneficial to the decision makers on how they're making technology decisions, changes, rolling it out across more locations.

I think it really is a critical point where retailers have to just ask questions to consumers.

Georgina Nelson: Yeah. Thank you, Casey! I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. Consumers are changing so rapidly, innovation, technology, and store is changing rapidly. And, for those, those two things to be in two step, it's, it's key to [00:06:00] be getting real time, up to date customer sentiment data. And as you said, just simply, simply ask them, and then you're not operating and making decisions in the dark, which can come to bite you later.

Ricardo Belmar: It's interesting is, and I think Costco is one example of retailer doing this, the, the trend of, having, not obviously not a manned self checkout area, but having at least one staff member standing by right near the self checkout area for those moments when something does go wrong. So they can quickly go over and help.

And I think, in the past self checkout was always presented as a labor solution for retailers, right? In the sense that, you would have fewer people staffing the checkout area yet still have a good enough process that it would provide. A good experience for customers when they check out without incurring any losses or anything.

But one person manning multiple self checkouts versus a one to one correspondence to a manned checkout area is still a labor savings, I suppose. But I, [00:07:00] I I'm kind of curious, when you are working with the retailer, Georgina, you have this kind of survey done and they're looking at data like this.

What, what's a typical thing that you, so just to reach out and say, you know what, how would you follow up with this? Is the normal thing that happens that a retailer says, we've learned this is a really interesting result and outcome from this question we asked. Now I want to go and ask a different question, and kind of correlate the two to see what kind of insight they can come up with. Or, do you usually see something like this where it's a very discrete kind of question. They just want that answer and then they're going to go off and take actions against that result. What, what do you find is the more common approach?

Georgina Nelson: Yeah, I think, asking a raft of questions to be able to, dig, dig deep. But also just being able to look at all the contextual data, which you have around that. So while on the face of it, it seems very simple Oh, it's just a, it's just a question, because of our integration with the POS, we can see, while all anonymous, we can see what someone, the products which they bought, we can see how often they return [00:08:00] and how much they spent. And so, if you're looking at your, your example of a home improvement store, actually being able to work with the retailer to say, yeah, it's it is.

In the, when people are buying huge planks of, of wood, that's when they have the most poorest experience on the self checkout. So maybe it's about, the ease of that remote scanner or, or whatever it is, or, yeah, really understanding that basket, that shopping basket mission and yeah, and the profile of those consumers.

And so, You can take those insights and whether that's yeah different investments in technology or training, like you said, having an assisted, assisted checkout, but, does it, do they stand at the front and shepherd you to yeah, shepherd you to the self checkout? Do they help you scan the first item?

It's these kinds of things, which we're working with our retailers to test, the AB test and really get that optimum consumer journey and customer [00:09:00] experience.

Casey Golden: that makes sense.

Ricardo Belmar: Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Well, that will do it for another edition of the Retail Razor Data Blades.

Casey Golden: Georgina, thank you so much for joining us.

Georgina Nelson: It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you both.

Show Close

Casey Golden: If you enjoyed our show, please consider giving us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts and Goodpods. Remember to smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player and tune in on YouTube so you don't miss a minute. I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.

Ricardo Belmar: Please share your feedback with us on Twitter at Casey C Golden, Ricardo underscore Belmar, and at RetailRazor, or find us on LinkedIn, Threads, and Instagram. For the best highlights from each episode shipped straight to your inbox, subscribe to our Substack newsletter for full episode transcripts and bonus content.