How Self-Service Technology Is Helping Physical Retail Take Back Sales

The brick-and-mortar retail model is in flux.

Stores have been shuttering due to retail theft, staffing shortages abound, items are locked up, and navigating the aisles takes longer than ever. Shoppers, conditioned by the shift to eCommerce throughout the past several years, value time and efficiency. They want to get what they want, when they want.

However, pain points abound. Even in a self-service setting, there’s the bagging and payments (via card or cash) at checkout kiosks. Layouts of stores are different depending on where one goes — and they can even be different for various locations across retail chains.

“The consumer perspective is really simple: Make it frictionless,” Cantaloupe CEO Ravi Venkatesan told Karen Webster. “All the consumer cares about is convenience.”

The grab-and-go model promises less friction. Individuals would walk into a store, select the desired items from the shelves (that’s the “grab” part), and leave, with payment processed automatically as they exit (that’s the “go” part), aided by sensors, cameras and a digital-first, contextual experience rendered in a physical setting.

Amazon’s Cashierless Experiment

The reality of getting to that frictionless experience has been marked by, well, friction. Amazon made headlines at the end of the last decade with Amazon Go, its store concept powered by Just Walk Out technology that was tied to cameras and sensors. However, those efforts have been scaled back in recent years. Simply put, retailers had to put up tens of thousands of dollars to make cashierless checkout possible.

But Amazon Go opened observers’ eyes to what is possible, Venkatesan said.

“Amazon Go stores were the concept cars that you see at the auto show, but the mass market product is going to look a lot different,” he said, adding, “The mass market product is likely a convenience store where the traditional experience is still there, but there’s a grab-and-go section. People will gravitate there and then, slowly, that grab-and-go section will become bigger.”

The potential is there to modernize the retail experience into one that’s a continuum of shopping, buying and exiting the store with ease. Retailers sorely need the overhaul, as “the fundamental layout, structure and experience of the store has not changed in a couple of centuries — and it has not moved on with technology,” Venkatesan said.

Self-checkout lanes are no panacea, as they’re cumbersome, cannot be moved around, and are $20,000 pieces of equipment.

Looking at the Future

As 2025 moves along, “the lines are blurring between eCommerce and physical commerce — and true, self-service, physical commerce will have a role,” Venkatesan said.

The storefront of the future will be one “where identity management is automatic and digitized,” where consumers will tap their cards when they enter the environment, or facial scans will accomplish the same goal, he said. Signage in the store will be digital, not physical, and the actual floor space and shelving will be optimized by arranging inventory in a flexible manner (using software available from providers such as Cantaloupe, which offers self-service and IoT technology to its retail clients).

The digitization of the search and “pick up and pay” functions will also be critical, he said.

In December, Cantaloupe introduced a product called Smart Store, which is a glass-front cabinet for inventory. Consumers approach the cabinet, tap their cards, the door unlocks, they pick up what they’ve paid for and exit. Each component of that experience is familiar to them.

“It’s AI-powered cameras and load-bearing scales” that prevent theft, Venkatesan said.

The range of alternative Cantaloupe solutions has proven to be cost-efficient, as “our Smart Stores [cost retailers] $10,000 to $15,000,” he said. Retailers see more than a 30% uplift in sales when embracing the grab-and-go model.

Costs will likely come down further “as the technology is at the bleeding edge and then at the leading edge,” Venkatesan said.

As part of these technological improvements, the integration of back-end systems is important, spanning enterprise resource planning systems and payment processing, he said. Gas station convenience stores, for example, can grapple with four different payment apps at the pump and beyond.

Cantaloupe’s technologies are used across a variety of commerce types and locations, from military bases to hospitals and universities to assisted living centers. Cantaloupe has been running its own bespoke loyalty programs but will eventually adopt and integrate with existing merchant loyalty programs, he said.

“Anything goes, and there are lots of benefits to putting things in this [grab-and-go] paradigm,” Venkatesan said.

The model helps bring the “eCommerce convenience and frictionless experience to in-person commerce,” he told Webster.